SYBRANDT VAN BEEST | A WINTER MARKETPLACE IN THE HAGUE

Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts, by circa 1900;

Thence by descent in the family;

From whom acquired by Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York, circa 1994;

From whom acquired, December 1994.  

Signed and dated 1653, this panel depicting a poultry market during the cold winter months is characteristic of the output of Sybrand van Beest, a relatively rare Dutch Golden Age artist. He specialized in market scenes, which were almost always set in recognizable and specific locations in the artist's native city, The Hague, where he spent most of his active life.  Van Beest was influenced by one of the great masters of the Dutch landscape, Jan van Goyen, and his figures bear similarity to those of Isaac van Ostade, yet the tradition that he is following here is that of late-16th century Flemish paintings of markets, most commonly associated with representations of the seasons. Van Beest’s relatively unknown œuvre suggests that painting may not have been his only profession.