Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Joos van Craesbeeck
The Marriage Contract
Lot Closed
March 24, 02:08 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 8,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Joos van Craesbeeck
Neerlinter circa 1605 - 1654/61 Brussels
The Marriage Contract
traces of a signature lower right on the ledge
oil on oak panel
unframed: 25.2 x 29 cm.; 9 7/8 x 11 3/8 in.
framed: 41.5 x 44.5 cm.; 16 3/8 x 17 3/8 in.
Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 4-5 November 1992, lot 81;
Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 12 March 1998, lot 50;
With Johnny van Haeften, London, 2000-01, from whom acquired for the Wieg collection.
Joos van Craesbeeck was married to Johanna Tielens, the daughter of the baker of the Antwerp prison. Van Craesbeeck took up that same profession in addition to painting and according to Arnold Houbraken, met his teacher, Adriaen Brouwer (1605-38), when the latter was in prison as a result of his debts.
Van Craesbeeck's paintings are often signed with monogram but never dated, making it difficult to establish a chronology of his works. However, it is believed that paintings such as the present work depicting tavern interiors rather than middle-class scenes, which show strong similarities with Brouwer’s style, are likely to be of an earlier date.
This scene has been identified as an illustration of the final steps of a marriage, when the contract is signed and proclaimed: the bride is requesting to add additional comments, while the groom impatiently calls on her to sign the contract. The idea of marriage as an arrangement, rather than an act of mutual affection, is part of an artistic tradition that includes depictions of 'The Ill-Matched Couple', or works such as Jan Steen’s The Marriage of Tobias and Sarah (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. GG 313)1, which similarly describe the potential hypocrisy of the institution of marriage.