A man playing a viola da gamba being offered a glass of wine by a young man

Cornelis Stangerus belonged to a well-educated and prominent Delft family. He was the son of Johannes Stangerus (d.1636), a clergyman, and Tryntgen Cornelisdr. de Man, the aunt of painter Cornelis de Man (see lot 125). Limited information exists about Stangerus's artistic training. From the 1630s to late 1650s he was recorded in Leiden and Amsterdam, where he collaborated with another little-known artist, Isaack Versteech, before becoming a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Middelburg in 1664. It is clear from the present work, and a comparable picture sold at Christie’s London, 9 July 2007, lot 32, that Stangerus was influenced by the Utrecht Caravaggisti (for further discussion on the artist see G. Jansen, ‘Cornelis Stangerus, an “artful painter”’, The Hoogsteder Mercury, I, 1985, pp. 43-52).