Dirck van Baburen is considered one of the most progressive painters in post-1620 Utrecht art. He lived and worked in Italy from around 1615 to 1621. His first known work following his return to Utrecht is Young man with Jew’s harp. The painting is dated 1621 and, along with the Flute player by Abraham Bloemaert and the two flute players painted by Hendrick ter Brugghen, it belongs to the earliest known northern Netherlandish examples of a musician portrayed as a half-figure. The Jew’s harp otherwise never occurs among the Caravaggist painters of Utrecht. The youth’s posture is typical when playing this instrument: it is pressed against the lips with the left hand while the index finger of the right hand vibrates the metal tongue, which is bent into a right angle at the end. The mouth cavity serves as sound box.

The idea of depicting a musician by himself and as a half-figure derives from Caravaggio (1571-1610) and his successors. Since Bloemaert never travelled to Italy, he must have picked up the theme through others. The honour of having introduced the genre in northern Europe falls to his pupil Baburen, or possibly to Ter Brugghen as well. The theme became highly popular, not only in Utrecht but also in other towns like Haarlem and Leiden. Frans Hals, for example, painted his famous Jester with a lute around the year 1623.

Young man with Jew’s harp is an intimate, almost sultry painting, with all the typical Caravaggist features. A canvas-filling young musician with bare shoulder, wearing a dashing beret with feathers. He is illuminated indirectly by a smoky candle behind the fluttering music pages he is playing from. The suggestive shadow of the ear of the chamberstick on the crumpled music page is a sophisticated demonstration of mastership. This is Baburen at his best.