Anthonie Palamedesz (Delft 1601 – 1673 Amsterdam)

An Interior with Elegant Company Drinking and Making Music around a Table

Oil on panel, 37 x 51.8 cm (14.6 x 20.4 inch); presented in a modern high quality ebonised frame of Dutch 17th-century model

Remains of signature ‘A. Palamedesz’ (lower right)

Provenance
Sir Robert Drummond Moncreiffe Baronet, C.B., C.M.G., Moncreiffe House, Bridge-of-Earn, Perthshire; his sale, Christie’s, London, 14 May 1926, lot 91 (unsold), and thence by descent to Miss Elizabeth Moncreiffe of Moncreiffe; Christie’s, New York, 25 January 2002, lot 3 (est. $30,000-50,000); The Harry R. Calsing Trust, Cleveland, Ohio

***

The Delft painter Anthonie Palamedesz primarily specialized in portraits and genre works, while his brother Palamedes Palamedesz was a battle scene painter.¹ Anthonie was taught the art of painting in the studio of Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, the leading portrait painter of the time. He joined the Delft Guild of Saint Luke as early as 1621, where one of his fellow painting colleagues was the celebrated Johannes Vermeer, who he would have known intimately. Anthonie married twice and had four children. His pupils were his younger brother Palamedes, his own son Palamedes II and Ludolf de Jongh. Anthonie died in Amsterdam in 1673.

Anthonie Palamedesz is best known for his charming genre paintings, often depicting well-dressed figures amusing themselves with song, games and drink. Such pictures were highly sought after during the Golden Age and remained popular for centuries afterwards.

In this beautiful work we see an elegant scene of several richly clothed figures in an interior. A buffet with sumptuous glass and metalware is set out in the background, while the figures around the table are amusing themselves with song, music and wine. The painting is filled with detail, and the brass chandelier and wine cooler in the foreground are beautifully observed, as are the elegant costumes of the figures. Based on the costumes the painting can be dated around the year 1640.

Paintings by Anthonie Palamedesz are included in the collections of many renowned museums, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Staatliches Museum in Schwerin. Our painting can for instance be compared with Palamedesz’s Interior with Elegant Company in the Boijmans-Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (fig.).²

This painting is entered in the databases of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD) in The Hague under artwork no. 47759.

SOLD

1. For the artist, see R.E.O. Ekkart and G. Wuestman, 'Anthonie Palamedesz' zogenaamde portretten van het echtpaar De Witte opnieuw geïdentificeerd', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 54 (2006), p. 351-357 and Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992- , vol. 94 (2017), p. 165.
2. Panel, 35 x 44.5 cm, inv. no. 1652 (OK); Friso Lammertse and Jeroen Giltaij, Nederlandse genreschilderijen uit de zeventiende eeuw, eigen collectie Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 1998, pp. 138-39, repr.