Violin Player with a Wine Glass (1623): Art, History and Details

Violin Player with a Wine Glass (1623) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Dirck van Baburen (Dutch, c. 1595–1624).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Baburen, a native of Utrecht, was among the first to introduce Caravaggio’s revolutionary style to the Netherlands. Half-length figures positioned close to the picture plane project a lively spontaneity. This musician’s loose, colorful dress marks him as a figure at the edges of society, unbound by behavioral norms—associations enhanced by his bold gaze, unshaven face, and cheeky grin complete with broken tooth.

Object facts

• Title: Violin Player with a Wine Glass
• Date: 1623
• Creator attribution: Dirck van Baburen (Dutch, c. 1595–1624)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 80.4 x 67.1 cm (31 5/8 x 26 7/16 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2018.25

A detail from the museum

Other paintings by Utrecht artists feature the same model, whose extravagant mustache and broken tooth make him instantly recognizable.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Fresh Take. Three of the Northern European galleries get a fresh look.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58. no. 6 (November/December 2018): 20-21.
• Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Acquisitions 2018: European Paintings and Sculpture 1500-1800.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 13-15.
• Griswold, William M. “Recent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93-104.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.