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| Artist | Dutch School |
| Title | A Courtship |
| Date earliest | probably 1700 |
| Date latest | probably 1800 |
| Material | oil on panel |
| Measurements | 44 x 38.6 cm |
| Inscription | front lc (on ledge) ‘Ms’ [?] |
| Description | This genre scene depicts a young couple ‘making music’ in a visual double entendre. The scene is framed by a balcony, with a heavy curtain to the left, and a marble column to the right. At the right, a man plays a recorder, perhaps to accompany the voice of the well-dressed young woman at the centre of the composition who appears to be reading a music score. A second man leans on the balcony grinning towards the viewer, a parrot perched on his left hand, a clay pipe in his right. |
| Subject | figure; everyday life; animal (parrot); still life (fruit); interior |
| Collection | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath |
| Current accession number | BATVG:P:1900.25 |
| Previous accession number(s) | A24 |
| Acquisition details | Given by the executors of Mons. James Shepherd, before 1900. |
| Provenance | Collection of Conolly family, Midford Castle, by 1871; bequeathed by Mrs Jane Conolly to Mons. Charles Parfitt, Prior Park, Bath, 1871; bequeathed (?) by Mons. Charles Parfitt to Mons. James Shepherd, Prior Park, Bath, 1886. |
| Principal exhibitions | Bath Assembly Exhibition , Guildhall, Bath, 1948; Musical Instruments, Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath, 1971; Renaissance to Baroque 1520-1720: Treasure from Bristol and Bath Museums, Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath, 1981. |
| Principal publications | Catalogue of Pictures: Exhibition of Pictures in the Possession of the Corporation of the City of Bath, Bath, 1948, p. 22; Wright, C., Old Master Paintings in Britain: An Index of Continental Old Master Paintings executed before c.1800 in Public Collections in the United Kingdom /I>, London, 1976, p. 136 (as Frans van Mieris I); Renaissance to Baroque 1520 –1720: Treasure from Bristol and Bath Museums, Bath, 1981, p. 8; Sloman, S.,, Victoria Art Gallery: Concise Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings, Bath, 1991, p. 110 (as attributed to Frans van Mieris). |
| Notes | Label fragment on reverse: 'C../ Parfitt décor-.(?) / No. 37'. In the opinion of O. Naumann this work is not attributable to Frans van Mieris or close associates, and should be ascribed to a late follower of the Dutch fijnschilders ('fine painters'). Although the work is not the most accomplished of its type, certain elements such as the parrot and still-life are well executed; it is possible the general quality has been compromised by over-painting or retouching of losses. Mons. James Shepherd was a master at the Catholic college of Prior Park, Bath, and author of Reminiscences of Prior Park, London, 1894. The Victoria Art Gallery’s collection of works from Midford Castle near Bath was bequeathed or given to Shepherd by another master at the college, Mons Charles Parfitt. The Midford Castle estate had been bequeathed to Parfitt by Mrs Jane Conolly, a bequest which was unsuccessfully contested by Mrs Conolly’s nephew in 1871-72. It is uncertain if the collection was originally accumulated by Mrs Conolly’s late husband, the eminent barrister Charles Conolly, or whether, as is traditionally supposed, it came into the family by the marriage of his son to the Italian Marchesa di Sant’ Agata. |
| Rights status | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath |
| Author | Dr Susan Steer |
