Charles I brought many Dutch artists to England, but they tended to be painters of portraits, ‘perspectives’ and ships. The three works included here are exceptions within Charles I’s collecting and only tangentially qualify as scenes of everyday life. Ter Brugghen’s character study (cat. 2) must have appealed to the King alongside portraits by Gerrit Honthorst (1590 – 1656), both artists being Utrecht followers of Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) (whose works also feature in Charles I’s collection).

Hendrick Pot was invited to London in 1632 to paint small-scale portraits of the royal family. It might have been during that visit that he received the commission for his enigmatic scene of high-life drama (cat. 18).