(Rotterdam 1678–1727)
A village kermesse,
dated (on the tavern sign): 172.,
oil on panel, 73.4 x 107.7 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, United Kingdom

We are grateful to Luuk Pijl for confirming the attribution of the present painting and for compiling the present catalogue note. His certificate is available.

This large and beautifully preserved panel shows an animated main street through a village, with a high church steeple dominating the scenery. Numerous figures are involved in a wide variety of festivities. At the left a woman sells bread in different shapes. A group of revellers arrive in a carriage, and in the centre a man walks with a dead goose. He probably just returned from the cruel game of ‘tugging the goose’ – ‘ganstrekken’ in Flemish – in which a living goose hanging on a line had to be captured. Others dance, drink, and fight. The right side of the composition is dominated by a large inn, called the ‘Red Lion’, as the conspicious sign indicates. All of these activities indicate that an annual kermesse is being held. The prominent church – ‘kerk’ in Flemish – also alludes to this.

Village kermesses were a popular genre in Flemish painting towards the end of the sixteenth century. In the present composition, the scene is constructed with a central vanishing point showing various aspects of the lively village feast. The subject originated from the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525–1569); the theme was made especially popular around 1600 by David Vinckboons (1576–1632), a native from Flanders who worked in Amsterdam from 1591 onwards.

The painting is stylistically indeed very typical for Rutger Verburgh. It relates closely to a signed picture of the same subject matter offered at Sotheby’s Olympia, London, on 4 July 2006 as lot 415.

Biographical data concerning the life of Rutger Verburgh is scarce. He belonged to a dynasty of Rotterdam artists. The son of the prolific landscape painter Dionys Rutse Verburgh, the young Rutger Verburgh was probably trained by his father. No other painter is recorded as his master.