Market Place near a Town Gate
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 35 x 49 cm h x w x d: Ram 50 x 64 x 5 cm
Inventory numberNM 354
Other titlesTitle (sv): Torgplats vid stadsport Title (en): Market Place near a Town Gate
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 172: Technical notes: The support consists of a piece of coarse fabric woven in a plain weave technique with 11–12 vertical threads and 9–11 horizontal threads per square cm. The tacking edges, which have been preserved along all four sides, have been prepared and are partly overlapped by the paint layer. Cusping is present on the lower edge but is only visible from verso. The preparatory layer consists of a semi-thick pale faint pink ground with a dark, opaque brownish-black imprimatura applied thickly and evenly to cover the structure of the fabric completely. The paint layer is opaque and contains impasto elements in the foliage and architecture. The figures are painted economically and the rendering is stiff. The brushwork of the architecture is suppler and the colour layer somewhat more modelled. The figures are not modelled well and this adds to the simplicity of the painting technique. They are rendered opaquely with impasto used for highlights and emphasis. The architecture has been painted in the reserves left in the background with a few visible guidelines, executed in a wet medium. The foliage of the tree in the middle has distinct highlights in a zigzag pattern (more obviously than in no. 171). The foliage, vessels and figures have been painted over the foreground and background. The hills in the background are painted in a sfumato technique. The palette consists of red mixtures, blue (pigment changes mean that this is now greyish), white and earth colours. There is minor craquelure in the paint layer in areas with dark colours. The technique and material seem to match no. 173. The painting is in good condition and underwent conservation treatment in 1929. provenance: Johan Gabriel Stenbock 1705; Christina Beata Lillie; Stina Lillie 1727; Johan Gabriel Sack 1727; Eva Bielke 1751; auctioned on the death of Eva Bielke, Stockholm 1778; Purchased by Gustav III 1778; Gustav III 1792, no. 203 (as Adriaen Fransz. Boudewijns); KM 1795, no. 124; KM 1816, no. 131. bibliography: Sander II, p. 121, no. 203; Göthe 1887, p. 27 (as attributed to Adriaen Fransz. Boudewijns); Göthe 1893, p. 34 (as attributed to Adriaen Fransz. Boudewijns); NM Cat. 1958, p. 182; NM Cat. 1990, p. 328. This painting and its companion piece, no. 173, have a long-standing Swedish provenance that can be traced as far back as 1705 to the collection of Johan Gabriel Stenbock. After having subsequently been inherited by the Lillie, Sack and Bielke families, it was purchased by Gustav III at the auction of Eva Bielke’s estate in 1778. In Gustav III’s inventory the painting was attributed to Boudewijns, as it was later by Sander and Göthe (1887 and 1893). However, Göthe was already proposing both Pieter Bout and Matthijs Schoevaerdts as collaborator on the figures in Boudewijn’s work. In a comparison with the work of the latter in Göthe 1887, emphasis is placed on the greater elegance and wealth of detail in Boudewijn’s works than in the paintings owned by the Nationalmuseum. Attribution is made to Matthijs Schoevaerdts in letters from Gerson-Gudlaugsson dated 7 June and 17 August 1956, and this attribution was used in the catalogues of the Nationalmuseum’s holdings in 1958 and 1990.1 In this painting on canvas, the foreground and middle ground contains a large number of figures depicted in a market place close to a city gate. Several boats can be seen on the shore. Old and young people from different social classes meet at this lively market place where fruit and fish are being sold. In the immediate foreground a city wall is depicted with a town gate, a tower and a number of other secular buildings. In the background to the right water can be seen as well as the silhouette of a mountain range. Light, fluffy clouds are depicted in the sky, against which we see the elegant outline of a tree in leaf. The format and composition of the painting matches that of its companion piece, no. 173. On stylistic and technical grounds this work and its companion piece can be attributed to Matthijs Schoevaerdts. KS 1 In a letter dated 9 June 1956 addressed to Bengt Dahlbäck, Gerson at RKD claims, like Gudlaugsson, that the artist responsible for this work and for its companion piece NM 355 is Schoevaerdts rather than Boudewijns. NM curatorial files.[End]
Collection
TechniquePainting
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