The Misers, oil on panel, 54 x 47 cm, framed

The present painting derives form the celebrated composition by Marinus van Reymerswaele that was widely diffused during and since the late 16th Century. In his choice of subject matter, Reymerswaele limited himself to a small number of iconographic themes that he repeatedly varied. His favourite themes included tax collectors, racketeers, merchants, and moneychangers, all of whom can be interpreted as personifications of greed and avarice. It can be excluded that the figures depicted in the present painting are real historical personalities; instead, they should be interpreted as symbols charged with satirical meaning.

The most prominent version of the “Misers” or “The two Tax Gatherers” is preserved in the National Gallery, London; further variants are in the Louvre, Paris, in the Aschmann Collection in Switzerland, and in the Stibbert Museum in Florence. It is assumed that all versions depend on a prototype conceived by Quentin Massys. Moreover, there are strong similarities to the “The Money Changer and his Wife” by Massys from 1514 in the Louvre, Paris. The composition is even possibly based on a lost original by Jan van Eyck.

Little is known about the life of Marinus van Reymerswaele. He came from Zeeland and studied in Antwerp at a time when Quentin Massys was the town’s leading painter. In his realistic and almost expressionist paintings, Reymerswaele continued the tradition of Massys’ genre painting, adapting it to contemporary taste with his picturesque, accurate, and caricature-like manner.