An Elegant Company, by Pieter Codde, 1632
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An Elegant Company

Pieter Codde (Dutch, 1599-1678)

1632

Medium
Oil on panel
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
58.8 × 92.7 cm (23 1/8 × 36 1/2 in.); Framed: 84.8 × 118.1 × 6.4 cm (33 3/8 × 46 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.)
Culture
Holland
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Credit line
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Art Institute of Chicago

About this work

A master of scenes of finely dressed revelers known as “merry companies,” Amsterdam painter Pieter Codde here demonstrated his sharp sense of composition. He animated a gathering of 18 guests and attendants through a complex network of gestures, glances, and poses, with a young woman dressed in luxurious silver satin at center. Such images of joyful gatherings, with participants acting in accordance with their privileged social station, would have functioned as models of polite behavior to cosmopolitan art collectors.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0