Man Tuning a Violin

1680

Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

oil on panel
19.3 x 15.2 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, upper rightcorner: “Fvan. Mieris. fect / 1680”
FM-111© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Buvelot, Quentin. "Man Tuning a Violin." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Paintings of musicians, either playing or tuning an instrument, wereComparative Figures

extremely popular in the Dutch Republic, a testament to the appeal ofmusic in that culture, particularly among the upper classes. Here, a young
man dressed in a fancy black satin cloak listens intently to the sounds ofthe violin he is tuning, the half-smile on his face indicating that he ispleased with the results. He is seated in an elegant but dimly lit interior
with monumental pilasters, one of which is just behind him. A large
roemer, conspicuously filled with white wine, is on the table in front of him,as are two well-worn portfolios, probably containing sheet music, and alarge red velvet cap with a green feather. Also on the table is a thick tome
with finger indexing on the pages, indicating that the young man’s
dedication to music is only one aspect of his scholarly concerns. Paintingsof musicians also evoked associations with harmony and love, ones
frequently expressed in the poetry and emblem books of the period. For
example, Jacob Cats (1577–1660), in his Sinne- en Minnebeelden ofFig 1. “Quid non sentit amor,”engraving from Jacob Cats,
Proteus, ofte, Minne-beeldenverandert in sinne-beelden(Rotterdam, 1627)

1618, wrote a poem accompanying an illustration of a man tuning his lute(fig 1) that describes this activity as symbolic of two hearts “that vibrate tothe same tune.”[1]Throughout his career, Frans van Mieris excelled in rendering different
types of materials, including, as in this instance, glass, marble, and thefabric of the cloak and cap. This remarkable ability was one reason heachieved such inordinate fame during his lifetime. He often utilized this skill
to emulate reality, sometimes also creating trompe l’oeil images that
deceive the eye into believing that a painted image is reality itself. [2]During the latter part of his career, however, at the time he painted thiswork, Van Mieris’s art had become slicker and harder. He no longer

Fig 2. X-radiograph of Man
Tuning a Violin, FM-111 (imageturned upside down)sought to create the semblance of reality, but used his touch to create
engaging but artificial images. Rhythmic accents that play across hisfabrics bring energy and color to his paintings, but do not deceive theviewer into thinking them real. He also began to exaggerate expressions,as in the upward glance and half smile enlivening this young man’s face.
The exaggerated bend of the man’s left arm, which neatly echoes one of
the highlighted folds of the man’s shimmering cloak, may have been adeliberate attempt to convey elegance and refinement, as he uses thissweeping gesture in some of his other late paintings.[3] This attitude may
have its roots in the manuals of civility that were published in the Dutch
Republic during the seventeenth century.[4] These codes of manners wereFig 3. Frans van Mieris the Elder,
A Woman Tuning a Theorbo, witha Company in the Background,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Man Tuning a Violin
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called welstand, a word that refers to proper manners in the French
tradition. One of the most popular French etiquette guides, Antoine de1665, oil on panel, 22 x 17.5 cm,Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-262

Courtin’s Suite de la civilité française of 1671, was translated into Dutch
the following year.[5]The large roemer filled with wine brings to mind Van Mieris’s documented
alcohol abuse, which seems to have caused his affairs to unravel rapidly inthe last years of his life. In a letter dated 1675, one of Van Mieris’s patrons
wrote that Cunera van der Cock, the artist’s wife, requested that some ofthe fee Van Mieris was owed for a painting be paid directly to her, without
her husband’s knowledge, because the money would otherwise disappear“like acid on an etching plate.”[6] It is not impossible that the artist, who is
known to have had a great sense of humor, even alluded to his drinking
problems in this work by including the large roemer.
Technical research has determined that Van Mieris reused an existing
panel in painting this work (fig 2). When turned upside down, an Xradiograph of the painting shows a knee-length portrait of a lady, just as inWoman with a Lapdog, Accompanied by a Maidservant , also from 1680
(see FM-105). Less pronounced, but clearly visible on the X-radiograph, isa rectangular shape in the same position as the letter in Woman with aLapdog.[7] Probably Van Mieris started another version of that painting, butchanged his mind and reused the panel for the present work.[8] The
subject of a figure tuning a string instrument had already been introducedby the artist as early as 1665 in the Rijksmuseum’s A Woman Tuning aTheorbo, with a Company in the Background (fig 3). This painting, whichis almost the same size as Man Tuning a Violin, was once thought to havealso been executed in 1680.[9]-Quentin Buvelot© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Man Tuning a Violin
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. “Twee herten op eenen toon.” Jacob Cats, Proteus, ofte, Minne-beelden verandert in sinnebeelden (Rotterdam, 1627), 86. See E. de Jongh et al., Tot lering en vermaak:
Betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh, cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), 106 and fig. 21b; see also M. Kyrova,“Music in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting,” in Music and Painting in the Golden Age(Exh. cat. The Hague, Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder Gallery; Antwerp, Hessenhuis Museum)(Zwolle, 1994), 31–62, esp. 41 and fig. 8.
2. See, for example, Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 117–19, no. 16.
3. Otto Naumann in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 37.
4. Otto Naumann in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 38.
5. Nieuwe verhandeling van de welgemanierheidt, welke in Vrankryk onder fraaye lieden
gebruikelyk is (New Treatise on Good Manners, Customary in France among Fine People);
Otto Naumann in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 38.
6. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder , 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:31,183–84.
7. This was pointed out in a report of August 2011 by Annette Rupprecht, paintings
conservator.
8. The versions described by Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 2:125, nos. 120 a–c, are almost certainly identical to the present
painting; as such, the provenances of these three previously called “versions” are actually
the provenance of the painting discussed here, of which no copies are known.
9. The signature and date of the Amsterdam painting were discovered during the restoration of
the panel in 2006 by the Rijksmuseum, where it was seen by the present author. The
painting has since been published in Lieneke Nijkamp and Zeph Benders, “Nieuw licht op
een nachtstuk van Frans van Mieris,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 55 (2007): 208–17 andfigs. 1–3. Otto Naumann had originally dated the painting to about 1680; see Otto Naumann,Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder , 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:124, no. 119 andcaption to fig. 119.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Man Tuning a Violin
Page 6 of 8Provenance
Gerard Bicker van Swieten, The Hague (sale, The Hague, 12 April 1741, no. 58 [250guilders to De Waart but still in Bicker van Swieten’s possession in 1752]; sale, The Hague,
4 April 1755, no. 23 [161 guilders]).
(De Montribloud Sale, Paris, 9 February 1784, no. 31).
Phillipe Panne, London (sale, Christie’s, London, 26 March 1819, no. 103 [9 guineas toWard].
Ludovic de Spiridon, Rome, 1922–28 (his sale, Muller, Amsterdam, 19 June 1928, no. 60,
as signed and dated 1650).
Private collection, Germany (sale, Flechtheim, Helbing, Paffrath, Berlin, 11 March 1933, no.
60).
[Galerie Voltaire, Paris, 1975].
Private collection, Finland, by 1981.
(Sale, Christie’s, London, 10 July 1998, no. 33; sale, Christie’s, New York, 15 October 1998,no. 64).
[Johnny van Haeften Ltd., London, 2002].
David Blank, Greenwich, CT, until 2005 [Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2005.

Exhibition History
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015, no. 25 [lent by the presentowner].
Dallas Museum of Art, “Vermeer Suite: Music in 17th-Century Dutch Painting,” 17 January
2016–21 August 2016 [lent by the present owner].

References
Hoet, Gerard and Terwesten, Pieter. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver
pryzen. 3 vols. The Hague, 1752–70, 2:15, 463; 3:117, no. 23.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28, 10:48, no. 184.
Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder . 2 vols. Doornspijk, 1981, 1:78–80,2:124–25, no. 120.
Buvelot, Quentin. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. Zwolle, 2005, 238, no. 120.
Weller, Dennis P. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries .
Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014,
143–45, no. 25.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular-shaped oak, has bevels on all foursides.[1] The unthinned and uncradled panel has machine tool marks along the lower left, a red
wax collection seal with an oval-shaped impression, and small paper label remnants but nocomplete paper labels, import stamps, stencils or panel maker’s marks along the panel reverse.
A light-colored ground has been evenly applied followed by paint applied smoothly in successive
thin layers with low brushmarking and transparent glazing, light over dark. In raking light, theindividual barbs of the green plume, the bright folds of the figure’s red velvet hat, and the white
pages of the book cantilevered over the table edge are slightly raised, as are the folds of thefigure’s satin drapery and the edges of the cover of the book located behind the hat.
The X-radiograph reveals an earlier composition: a three-quarter-length female figure, oriented
upside down with respect to the visible composition. This figure is strikingly similar to the woman
depicted in FM-105, a panel painting of nearly identical size, and a white, radio-opaque,parallelogram-shaped object located to the left of this female figure is similar in size andplacement to the letter with wax seal lying on the table in FM-105.[2] Fine aperture drying cracks
have formed through the brown background, and areas of white paint along the left edge relate to
the earlier composition, perhaps the putto on a dolphin in FM-105, as the earlier portrait isoriented upside down.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the upper right corner.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images at 780–1000 nanometers. Furtherinvestigation at wavelengths that penetrate further into the infrared region may provide additional
information.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph andpanel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential for
dendrochronology.
2. FM-105 has an inlaid panel construction:
2. Inset panel dimensions: 19.3 cm H x 15.5 cm W
2. Outer panel dimensions: 20.5 cm H x 16.5 cm W

© 2017 The Leiden Collection