New Acquisition: Dirck van Baburen’s “The Violin Player” — A Future Visitor Favorite?

While in Rome in the early 1600s, the Dutch painter Dirck van Baburen became fascinated by the work of the Italian painter Caravaggio, known for a style of painting characterized by unprecedented naturalism and dramatic lighting effects as pictured in the CMA’s masterwork The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, below.

Baburen brought this Caravaggesque style back to the Netherlands to use in his paintings of historical subjects and scenes of everyday life featuring musicians, drinkers, and other marginal types. Fewer than 40 paintings by Baburen are known today, due to the artist’s early death.

The CMA’s recent acquisition, The Violin Player, represents one of the most characteristic themes addressed by the artist: a half-length figure of a musician, depicted at life size and close to the picture plane.

Painted in 1623, one year before the artist’s death, The Violin Player exhibits Baburen’s confident brushwork and characteristic cool, bright tonalities. The Violin Player will be presented in gallery 213 in December 2018 when the northern European galleries are refreshed and unveiled.

Learn more about this recent acquisition from Marjorie E. Wieseman, the CMA’s curator of European paintings and sculpture in the Q&A below! Read about the full round of recent acquisitions via the Plain Dealer article.

Why did you recommend The Violin Player as an acquisition to the CMA’s collection?

Dirck van Baburen’s Violin Player, a work of great quality and visual impact, represents an important and influential moment in the history of northern European painting. A Dutch artist from Utrecht, Dirck van Baburen was profoundly influenced by the paintings of Caravaggio that he encountered in Italy. Rather than copying the Italian master’s works, however, Baburen and his Dutch contemporaries Hendrick ter Brugghen and Gerrit Honthorst, introduced a distinctly northern version of Caravaggio’s style to the Netherlands. Combining Caravaggio’s naturalism and dramatic lighting effects with a brighter palette, they created works of tremendous immediacy that was unprecedented in the north and would prove influential to Dutch artists throughout the 17th century.

What was your emotional reaction to seeing The Violin Player for the first time?

Because Baburen died so young — he was only in his 30s — fewer than forty of his paintings are known. When I first saw The Violin Player, I was of course dazzled and amazed to see a previously unknown work by this artist whose works are rare and highly desirable. This bold and unaffected character who unabashedly demonstrates his enjoyment of life’s sensual pleasures — music, drink, and a hint of bared flesh — made me return his smile.

I would add that when I first saw this painting in person, it was being cleaned by a conservator in a conservation lab. A restorer in the past had “repaired” the violin player’s chipped tooth, and the more recent conservation treatment removed the previous inpainting to return to Baburen’s original intention. So I was delighted when I saw the violin player in his natural state, complete with chipped tooth!

The Violin Player seems destined to become a visitor favorite in CMA’s collection. Why do you think that is?

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. Clearly he likes to have a good time!