SYBRANDT VAN BEEST | A VEGETABLE MARKET

Sale, Munich, Helbing, 1903, lot 1 (according to Raupp, see Literature);

Anonymous sale, Munich, Neumeister, 20–21 March 1996, lot 482 (as Hendrik Martensz. Sorgh);

Anonymous sale, Munich, Neumeister, 25 September 1996, lot 456 (as Hendrik Martensz. Sorgh);

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 6 May 1997, lot 17 (as dated 1632), when acquired.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 9.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 5, Stilleben und Tierstücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2004, pp. 50–53, cat. no. 4, reproduced in colour;

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 39, cat. no. 9, reproduced in colour.

Sybrandt van Beest painted several works based on the theme of the fruit and vegetable market, often set in recognisable, specific locations in the artist’s native city, The Hague, where he spent almost all his active life. The over-sized vegetables in the foreground of this painting look particularly award-winning, and are characteristically painted more thickly than the rather more thinly- and delicately-rendered brickwork and sky in the background.

Van Beest was influenced by one of the great masters of Dutch landscape, Jan van Goyen, and his figures bear similarity to those of Isaac van Ostade, but the tradition that he appears to be following most closely here is that of late-16th century Flemish paintings of markets, most commonly associated with representations of the seasons. Van Beest’s relatively small known œuvre suggests that painting may not have been his only profession.