760 - Genre Painter, Young Couple with Third Figure, Man with Blue Cap before Young Woman, Half-length

Genre Painter, Young Couple with Third Figure, Man with Blue Cap before Young Woman, Half-length Oil on canvas, relined, unsigned, probably 18th/19th century, group of three figures before a dark ground, in the foreground a young man with dark blue cap in profile to the right, standing in front of a young woman with light brown hair, lowered gaze, white blouse and blue part of a garment, clasping her shoulder with his left hand, at the right rear a second man in reddish brown with open mouth, one hand raised before his chest, age-appropriate condition, retouching, heavily cracked, paint losses, image 70x55.5 cm (HxW), framed in a gold-coloured frame with fluted moulding and relief corner rosettes, frame chipped, frame width 7.5 cm Half-length pictures with few figures in close-up before a dark ground go back to the Utrecht Caravaggisti, who around 1620 with ter Brugghen, Honthorst and Baburen introduced Caravaggism and its chiaroscuro into Dutch painting and influenced later painters. The pair of lovers with a third figure belongs to the genre scenes of this tradition and, as a half-length picture before a dark ground, follows the Old Master paintings in the format of the cabinet picture.