Adam Williams

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This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.
Gerrit van Honthorst, The Concert, 1623, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Florian Carr Fund, 2013.38.1

The Concert

Gerrit van Honthorst · 1623 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2013.38.1

Francisco Borges Salas, A Shrouded Figure Seated Before a Fantastic Skyscraper, 1928, black chalk and stumped graphite heightened with white chalk on gray paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2003.93.1

A Shrouded Figure Seated Before a Fantastic Skyscraper

Francisco Borges Salas · 1928 · black chalk and stumped graphite heightened with white chalk on gray paper ·  Accession ID  2003.93.1