A music party in an elegant interior, seen past a trompe l'oeil curtain

The artist was the son of the genre painter and etcher Franciscus Carree, who was a steward of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in circa 1660 and court painter to Willem Frederik of Nassau-Dietz, Governor of Frisia. After his father's death in 1669, Hendrik moved to Antwerp, where he studied under Jacob Jordaens before returning to the United Provinces, where he worked in Amsterdam and The Hague. Normally known for his depictions of half-length figures, there is another conversation piece with numerous figures in the Staatsgalerie, Schleissheim; that and the present picture both show a Flemish influence, owing no doubt to his stay in Antwerp. Besides peasant and bourgeouis genre paintings, some landscapes are known by Carree, who himself had four sons, who were all painters.