Company Making Music

A company of well-dressed figures gathers in a warmly lit interior to make music together. One plays the violin, another a recorder, and a small group sings from sheets held in their hands — an elegant Dutch Golden Age company scene showing the cultivated leisure of the period. Johannes Verkolje the Elder (1650–1693), a Delft painter known for his smooth, finely detailed genre scenes and portraits, painted the work around 1680 on wood panel, in an intimate 44 × 39 cm format. The painting is held by the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.