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Notes

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We seem to have crept to within touching distance of this small group of musicians who turn towards us with surprise. The highly focused light source creates sharp highlights, intense shadows and a sense both of drama and intimacy. Dramatic lighting effects like this are now common, but in the 1620s it was a revolutionary way to paint. The man responsible for this revolution was Michelangelo Caravaggio, who was working in Rome between about 1597 and 1607.

Ter Brugghen was the first important Dutch painter to bring Caravaggio’s ideas back to Holland and this composition reveals his influence in other ways. The half-length figures crowded together within the composition and filling the pictorial space – right up to the edges of the frame – are typical of the Italian artist, as is the clarity and realism of the depiction of the grapes in the foreground.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Concert

Date

about 1626

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 99.1 x W 116.8 cm

Accession number

NG6483

Acquisition method

Bought with contributions from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund and The Pilgrim Trust, 1983

Work type

Painting

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.

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Artist or maker

Hendrick ter Brugghen

1588–1629

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A Boy with a Roemer of Wine by Candlight The Schorr Collection
Violinist with a Glass The Schorr Collection
Young Woman Tuning a Lute The Fitzwilliam Museum
The Concert The National Gallery, London
Jacob reproaching Laban for giving him Leah in place of Rachel The National Gallery, London
Portrait of a Man playing the Bagpipes Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
A Man playing a Lute The National Gallery, London
3 more