Simon de Vos was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and art collector. He started his career making small-format cabinet pictures of genre scenes, in particular of Caravaggesque merry companies. Later he switched to history painting, working on larger formats in a Flemish Baroque style which was influenced by Rubens and van Dyck.
Portrait by van Dyck, 1630s
Merry Company, 1631
Gathering of Smokers and Drinkers, 1626
Martyrdom of St Philip, 1645–1648
Merry company is the term in art history for a painting, usually from the 17th century, showing a small group of people enjoying themselves, usually seated with drinks, and often music-making. These scenes are a very common type of genre painting of the Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque; it is estimated that nearly two thirds of Dutch genre scenes show people drinking.
Willem Pietersz. Buytewech, Merry Company, c. 1620, apart from the maid an all-male group
Dirck Hals, Merry Company at Table, 1627–29
Prostitution is clearly indicated in this scene by Gerard van Honthorst of 1623, complete with aged procuress, low cleavage, and a feathered headdress on the second girl.
Abraham van den Hecken, A Merry Company in a Tavern, 1640s