An Elegant Company
1632
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
About the artist
Artist
Pieter Codde
Pieter Jacobsz Codde was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits.
See the richer artist page1632
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
An Elegant Company is a 1632 oil by Pieter Codde, a Baroque work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a crowded room full of finely dressed people—eighteen of them—laughing, talking, and playing music. A woman in silver satin stands at the center, her dress shimmering under soft light. Codde packed the scene with tiny stories. A man leans in to whisper, a musician tunes his lute, and a servant pours wine. Each person seems to know their role, like actors in a play about manners and wealth. The painting feels alive, even though no one moves. For more scenes like this, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way light and shadow shape the mood.
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.
George, Sixth Duke of Leuchtenberg (died 1912), by 1912 [according to New York 1912-1913]. Böhler and Steinmeyer; purchased by Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), 1914 [according to an invoice dated May 25, 1914 in curatorial file]; on loan to the Art Institute from 1925; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.
New York, The V. G. Fischer Art Galleries, Collection of Paintings by Old Masters of All Schools, 1912–1913, no. 38.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Pieter Jacobsz Codde was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits.
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