Description

The Flute Player – coloured engraving

This coloured engraving dates from around the mid-nineteenth century. It is after a work by the Amsterdam-based painter Johannes VETTEN (1827-1866). He was known for being a painter of finely elaborated sentimental anecdotal genre scenes.  The engraving itself was by Hendrik Wilhelmus LAST (1817-1873) – also based in the Netherlands. The Hague publishing house run by Koenraad Fuhri was in business for roughly 18 years, active from 1837 until 1855. He moved to New Orleans in the US.  The printer was the famous G.J. Thieme or Gerrit Jan Thieme (1827-1889) printers.

The scene is one of an old man playing or practising the flute in a simple room…almost like a boarding house. He is seated on a wooden chair and staring intently at the music on the music stand. He looks rather fed up and grumpy…maybe it’s the score or he is desperately trying to compose something. We can see he also has a violin, a dark hat, a bottle with a funnel and a rolled-up paper. Could his bad mood be the result of the wine? Is he a composer or a street musician? The bird in the cage knows the secret.