MAÎTRE DES CORTÈGES (ACTIVE IN FRANCE IN THE MID-17TH CENTURY)

This picture corresponds closely with a painting in Bristol City Art Gallery that was formerly thought to have been painted by one of the three Le Nain brothers, who were active in Paris during the 1630s and '40s (see C. Wright, Masterpieces of Reality, French XVIIth Century Painting, exh. cat., Leicester Museum, 23 October 1985-2 Febuary 1986, no. 65, p. 117). The Bristol painting is now also attributed to the 'Maître des Cortèges' (or 'Master of the Processions'), an artist whose name remains elusive but to whom a group of paintings clearly influenced by the Le Nain have been attributed. In this painting, as in the Bristol variant, the young man at the back of the tavern is shown holding a pochette, or dancing master's violin: although he holds it correctly in the playing position, the artist has omitted the instrument's strings, bridge and pegs.