Interior Of Tavern - Egbert Van Heemskerck (haarlem 1634- Londres 1704)

Interior of tavern
Egbert van Heemskerck
(Haarlem 1634 - London 1704)

Oil on the table
2nd half of the 17th century
Measure 72 x 55 frame 82 x 65
Signed and dated 1680

This beautiful interior scene, which
portrays a varied group of village characters in a tavern, it is an autograph work by Egbert van Heemskerck, one of the leading interpreters of the Dutch golden age.
The scene is particularly pleasant and features a man lying on a bench completely drunk and clutching a Dutch ceramic flask. A nice old lady watches him amused, while a character with a pipe seems to scold him.
Not far away, a young woman, visibly annoyed by the situation, looks after her two children.
In the background we can see two inevitable smokers portrayed in the most typical caricature ways of Flemish painting.
The work stands out for the liveliness of the warm colors, highlighted by an excellent state of conservation.
The plate is signed and dated by the author on the edge of the bench at the bottom right.
His genre paintings are exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Louvre in Paris, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge