Michiel van Musscher

With Newhouse Galleries, New York (according to a label on the verso);

With Karger, Caracas (according to a label on the verso);

Private collector, and thence by descent;

By whom anonymously offered ("Property of a Distinguished Private Collector"), New York, Christie's, 26 October 2016, lot 144 (as Caspar Netscher);

Private collector, Pennsylvania;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

In this signed early work by Michiel van Musscher, the artist depicts another painter accompanied by the tools of his profession within a grand interior. A roll of canvas or prepared paper sits on the variegated marble table beside a palette and brushes and two sculptures, just discernable behind the green velvet curtain at left. The marbles were likely among Musscher's studio props as they reappear in other works of his: the female bust in Allegorical Portrait of an Artist in Her Studio (Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, inv. no. G.57.10.1) and the fragmented male head in Self-Portrait (Rotterdam, Het Schielandshuis, inv. no. HMR 10567).

The sitter, who looks directly at the viewer, exudes confidence as his fashionable attire projects wealth and discrimination. The painter wears a red velvet beret and golden-brown satin Japonse rok over a lace shirt tied with a jabot.¹ Although as-yet unidentified, the depicted artist may have been patronized by a member of the House of Orange, as suggested by the potted orange tree visible in the landscape beyond.²

¹ Musscher's 1705 posthumous inventory included a purple rok (one "paerse sautijne Japonse Rok"). On the kimono-type garment, see M. de Winkel, "Rollenspel," in Kopstukken: Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, N. Middelkoop (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Bussum 2002, pp. 96-97.

² The inclusion of the open vista at right may be a view of the sitter's country estate, further underscoring his elite social standing.