# An Elegant Company

- By: Pieter Codde (Dutch, 1599-1678)
- Date: 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
- Credit line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16347)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/ae144f13-c81e-804d-fe08-e5783dac27ef/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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