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Catalogue 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]

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Mathys Schoevaerdts | Torgplats vid stadsport | Nationalmuseum