Jacob Duck Utrecht (?) circa 1600 - 1667

The Earls of Haddington, Tyninghame House

Jacob Duck, regarded as the finest exponent of the kortegaard genre of Dutch painting that became popular in the first half of the seventeenth century, probably learnt his trade in the studio of Pieter Codde in Amsterdam.  The present lot may be compared with a larger work sold in these Rooms, 9 July 1998, lot 18, and formerly with Richard Green, London, in which an ensign is similarly enjoying the company of a courtesan; the corresponding limited palette and silver tonality of these works would suggest a dating for both to the mid-1630s.