In the period 1655-75 Dutch painters transformed the depiction of middle-class interiors and courtyards, whether in group portraits and genre paintings. Various aspects of this transformation can be seen this painting. It was probably painted in Amsterdam and is similar to the Family in a Courtyard in Delft of c.1657-60 by Pieter de Hooch (Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildended Künste, Vienna). Both paintings show the emergence at this time of a very naturalistic, matter-of-fact depiction of figures in space, which makes the settings of the previous generation appear to be theoretical perspectival exercises. Unlike De Hooch’s Delft courtyard, this portico appears too Italianate to be a possible Dutch home, but the rendering of atmospheric light and tactile detail is comparable. Graat seems also to have been influenced by Terborch’s ‘trademark’ depiction of fine silk, which he developed in the 1650s.

The painting seems to depict Dutch burghers at their most jocularly unceremonious, enjoying fruit and wine on a terrace, with no suggestion of the excess or foppishness of the ‘outdoor party’ scenes of the previous generation. The master and mistress are easily spotted here: he sits centrally and is the only one wearing a hat; she is enthroned in the only chair with arms on his left hand. Portraits of husbands and wives were always hung this way round, in order to give the former due prominence.

This painting demonstrates how older generations sometimes continued to wear styles that had passed out of fashion amongst the younger members of society: the matriarch and patriarch here retain styles fashionable in the Netherlands during the first three decades of the seventeenth century. By contrast several members of the younger generation have adopted the new colourful fabrics, hairstyles and garments such as ribbon-trimmed petticoat breeches (worn by the young man at the back) influenced by fashions in France.

Signed and dated: B.G. f. 1658