A merry company drinking and playing music

Active in Delft from at least 1627 until he settled in The Hague around 1646 or 1647, Christiaen van Couwenbergh may have spent a formative few years in Utrecht in the early 1620s, where he came under the influence of the city's Caravaggesque painters, including Dirck van Baburen and Gerrit van Honthorst. Like Honthorst, van Couwenbergh received important commissions from the House of Orange, including at the Palace of Honselaarsdijk (1638), Huis ter Nieuwburg (1642-1643), Noordeinde Palace (1647) and the exceptional Oranjezaal at the Huis ten Bosch (1648-1651).
We are grateful to Professor Wayne Franits for endorsing the attribution to van Couwenbergh on the basis of photographs.