CIRCLE OF JUDITH LEYSTER (HAARLEM 1609-1660 HEEMSTEDE)

This joyful picture of two young musicians enjoying a repose from playing bears close relation to the works of Judith Leyster and her husband Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668). Leyster often depicted small, intimate genre scenes, sometimes with a musical theme. The present lot can be compared to a picture of A Boy Musician attributed to Leyster (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, acc. no. K1343); it is possible that the boy musician is the same model depicted in the present picture. The faces of the two figures, however, are closer to those produced by Molenaer, whom Leyster married in 1636 and subsequently shared a studio with.

The present picture comes from the collection of the late banker George Pinto (1929- 2018). Pinto was an art lover and patron of the National Gallery and a trustee of the Wallace Collection. He kept a select collection of paintings he had inherited at his homes in Kent and Knightsbridge. In May 2020 the National Gallery in London acquired works through Christie’s by Jean-Etienne Liotard, Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Thomas Lawrence from the collection via the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.