Elegant company dining in a courtyard

From 1639-41 Zijl worked in London, where he excelled in the production of both portraits and genre subjects, earning him the sobriquet 'The Little Anthony van Dyck'. Benezit records that the popularity of his work was such that in the eighteenth century prices for his paintings were at a higher level even than those of his contemporary, Jan Vermeer. Zijl rarely signed his work, and with time his fame faded as many of his paintings were reattributed to better documented artists.

The figures of the man with his back to the viewer, raising a glass, and the woman sitting across from him were copied (with the addition of a cello held by the lady) in a larger composition of Elegant company drinking and playing music in a courtyard offered for sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 8 May 2000, lot 3, as Circle of Gerard Pietersz. van Zyl; a later version of the latter work by Melchior Brassauw (1709-1757) is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.