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Itinerant Entertainers in a Brothel

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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This is the interior of a brothel. On the left, three men drink with the women who work there, whose skirts are hoisted up to show their legs. On the right, we see a group of entertainers: a boy does a headstand on a stool; a small dog has perhaps already jumped through the hoop on the floor. An unkempt man with bagpipes has been accompanying the tricks. In the background, a man, flagon raised, embraces a woman, while in the top left corner a couple are closing the door of a bedroom. Pictures of inns and brothels were increasingly in demand in the sixteenth century, and at least five brothel scenes are attributed to the Brunswick Monogrammist. He did two versions of this composition, with different details in the background. Our painting is an enlarged version of a panel in the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; a variant can be seen in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Itinerant Entertainers in a Brothel

Date

1550s

Medium

Oil on oak

Measurements

H 45.5 x W 60.7 cm

Accession number

NG5577

Acquisition method

Presented by THomas Esmond Lowinsky in memory of Lt. T.M.F.E. Lowinsky, 1945

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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