Paintings

Flageolet Players

Type: Paintings(Opens in new tab)
Date: ca. 1780's
Accession number: 21.3
Maker: Matthew William Peters(Opens in new tab) (British, 1742–1814)
Dimensions: 65 3/4 x 50 1/2 in. (167 x 128.3 cm.)
Medium: oil on canvas
Description: This painting portrays a group of four including a man, a boy, and two women, full-length. The young woman sitting on the right is playing the flageolet. On her right is a boy who holds a flageolet in his right hand.
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Department: European Art
Find out more: View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)

Label text

Depictions of country life in which the customs of the poor are idealized for the pleasure of urban viewers were popular in Europe throughout the 18th century. In this scene, a seated male figure reaches toward a woman, who holds a simple flute, called a flageolet, to her mouth. In the bottom right corner, a wheel of cheese, knife, tin cup, and loaf of bread wrapped in a red scarf indicate that this merry party has put aside labor for a picnic supper.

Flageolet Players

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