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Distinguished Company in a Room
manner of Anthonie Palamedesz, after 1630
Voornaam gezelschap in een kamer. Interieur waarin een groep dames en heren zich hebben verzameld voor een maal. Links schenkt een bediende een glas wijn uit een kan, op de vloer staat een wijnkoeler. Rechts van het midden overhandigt een staande heer een roemer aan een zittende vrouw, rechts de gedekte tafel.
- Artwork typepainting
- Object numberSK-A-3335
- Dimensionssupport: height 34.3 cm x width 48.5 cm, outer size: depth 5.5 cm (support incl. frame)
- Physical characteristicsoil on panel
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Identification
Title(s)
Distinguished Company in a Room
Object type
Object number
SK-A-3335
Description
Voornaam gezelschap in een kamer. Interieur waarin een groep dames en heren zich hebben verzameld voor een maal. Links schenkt een bediende een glas wijn uit een kan, op de vloer staat een wijnkoeler. Rechts van het midden overhandigt een staande heer een roemer aan een zittende vrouw, rechts de gedekte tafel.
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Creation
Creation
painter: manner of Anthonie Palamedesz
Dating
after 1630
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Material and technique
Physical description
oil on panel
Dimensions
- support: height 34.3 cm x width 48.5 cm
- outer size: depth 5.5 cm (support incl. frame)
This work is about
Subject
Acquisition and rights
Credit line
Gift of Mr and Mrs Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch
Acquisition
gift 1940-03
Copyright
Provenance
…; art market, the Netherlands, c. 1920;{Note RKD.}…; donated to the museum by Mr and Mrs D.A.J. Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch, near Mechelen, 1940
Remarks
Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
Documentation
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Anthonie Palamedesz (manner of)
Distinguished Company in a Room
after 1630
Technical notes
The oak support consists of two horizontally grained planks and is bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1579. The panel could have been ready for use by 1590, but a date in or after 1596 is more likely. The wood imparts a warm, reddish glow to the light-coloured, transparent ground. The figures were reserved in the background, possibly with the exception of the musician on the right. Scanning with infrared reflectography revealed that the figure of the serving-boy on the left was initially planned approximately 2 cm higher. It also showed that the position of the shadow on the floor on the right was adjusted.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 13 maart 2003
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 7 juli 2003
Condition
Fair. There is an open join, with small losses along it, and there are two horizontal 10 cm cracks in the centre. The paint is abraded in several areas. The varnish is matte and discoloured.
Provenance
…; art market, the Netherlands, c. 1920;1Note RKD.…; donated to the museum by Mr and Mrs D.A.J. Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch, near Mechelen, 1940
Object number: SK-A-3335
Credit line: Gift of Mr and Mrs Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch
The artist
Biography
Anthonie Palamedesz (Delft 1601 - Amsterdam 1673)
Anthonie Palamedesz was born in Delft in 1601 as a son of a gem-cutter. His teacher is unknown, but it has been suggested that he studied with Michiel van Mierevelt. In 1621, Palamedesz entered the Guild of St Luke, of which he was warden in 1635 and several times between 1653 and 1673. He was probably in Amsterdam around 1626, as he copied one or more of the sitters from a civic guard piece by Claes Pietersz Lastman (d. 1625) in that year.2Amsterdams Historisch Museum, on loan from the Backer Stichting; Müller-Schirmer in Amsterdam 2002, pp. 197-98, no. 69 (ill.). In 1630, he married Anna Joosten van Hoorendijk in Delft. In 1658, seven years after the death of his first wife, he married Aagje Woedewart. Palamedesz died in 1673 during a visit to Amsterdam. Among his pupils were his brother, the battle painter Palamedes Palamedesz I (1607-38), his son Palamedes Palamedesz (1633-1705) and Ludolf de Jongh (1616-79).
The bulk of Palamedesz’s oeuvre consists of genre scenes and portraits. There are few works that carry a date prior to 1632, but his earliest genre scenes, elegant companies in the open air in a style derived from Esaias van de Velde, can be dated to the mid-1620s. From the early 1630s onwards he painted numerous so-called merry companies in the manner of Dirck Hals and Pieter Codde. A document from 1636 reveals that he painted figures in a picture by Johannes van Vught, and it appears that he also did the same for Dirck van Delen, Bartholomeus van Bassen, and possibly for Anthonie de Lorme as well. Palamedesz’s military guardrooms were produced in the late 1640s and the 1650s. He continued painting genre scenes until the end of his life, but the majority of his dated works from 1650 onwards are portraits.
Gerdien Wuestman, 2007
References
Van Bleyswijck 1667, II, pp. 847-48; Houbraken I, 1718, p. 304, II, 1719, p. 33; Havard II, 1880, pp. 1-70; Bredius 1890, pp. 308-13; Haverkorn van Rijsewijk 1891a, p. 46; Sutton in Turner 1996, pp. 831-32; Rüger in New York-London 2001, pp. 318-20
Entry
The composition and iconography are characteristic of Palamedesz’s genre scenes from the first half of the 1630s (cf. SK-A-1906). A still life similar to the one in the left corner features in a 1632 Merry company in Helsinki,3Atheneum; illustrated in Poznan 2002, pp. 36-38. and the servant pouring wine on the left and the musician on the right appear in almost identical poses in a picture by Palamedesz that is dated to around 1635 by Liedtke.4In 1951 with the art dealer Eugene Slatter, London; illustrated in Liedtke 2001, p. 74, fig. 84. This is typical of the way in which the artist varied his motifs. However, the interior in the present painting is less defined and atmospheric than is usual with Palamedesz, and its execution is tighter and smoother, indicating a different hand.
There are two other versions, both apparently later copies.5Panel, 52 x 68 cm; in 1928 with the art dealer P. Rosenthal, Berlin, as A. Palamedesz; photo RKD; panel, 51 x 68 cm; sale, London (Sotheby’s), 7 July 1993, no. 283, as attributed to Anthonie Palamedesz, with the addition of two engraved portraits hanging on the back wall. The similarities between these works, and the fact that they are the same size, indicate that one of them was copied after the other.
Gerdien Wuestman, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 232.
Collection catalogues
1976, p. 435, no. A 3335; 2007, no. 232
Citation
G. Wuestman, 2007, 'manner of Anthonie Palamedesz., Distinguished Company in a Room, after 1630', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20025971
(accessed 7 December 2025 17:47:23).Footnotes
- 1Note RKD.
- 2Amsterdams Historisch Museum, on loan from the Backer Stichting; Müller-Schirmer in Amsterdam 2002, pp. 197-98, no. 69 (ill.).
- 3Atheneum; illustrated in Poznan 2002, pp. 36-38.
- 4In 1951 with the art dealer Eugene Slatter, London; illustrated in Liedtke 2001, p. 74, fig. 84.
- 5Panel, 52 x 68 cm; in 1928 with the art dealer P. Rosenthal, Berlin, as A. Palamedesz; photo RKD; panel, 51 x 68 cm; sale, London (Sotheby’s), 7 July 1993, no. 283, as attributed to Anthonie Palamedesz, with the addition of two engraved portraits hanging on the back wall.