A preliminary drawing, in the same sense and with traces of incising, is in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg (Schnackenburg, op.cit., no. 76). The subject may partly have been inspired by Rembrandt's etching Street Musicians of circa 1635 (B.119). Ostade later took up this subject in his famous picture dated 1673 now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (H.R. Hoetink (ed.), The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, Amsterdam/New York/The Hague, 1985, pp. 240-1, no. 61). Schnackenburg dates this plate to circa 1653-60, while Slatkes narrows the date to circa 1654.