BLOOT, Pieter de

Pieter de Bloot and Cornelis Saftleven, both in the circle of the ‘Dutch Teniers Group’, ensured that peasant themes remained popular during the second half of the 17th century when high-life genre painting emerged. The present painting, depicting a barn interior with peasants eating and dancing to the music of bagpipes, is a particularly fine and characteristic work by this talented and versatile painter.

Christ’s visit to the house of Martha and Mary, taken from St Luke’s Gospel, formed the basis of several representations from the mid-16th century onwards. In the religious context of the time, this scene illustrated one of the fundamental differences opposing Catholics and Protestants. The latter sought salvation in action whilst the former placed greater value on the contemplative life. In his painting Pieter de Bloot combined the religious scene in the background with a kitchen still-life in the foreground, following the tradition established in the sixteenth century by Pieter Aertsen and his nephew and pupil Joachim Beuckelaer.

In his painting Pieter de Bloot combined the religious scene in the background with a kitchen still-life in the foreground.

Pieter de Bloot was a Dutch painter inspired by Adriaen Brouwer. He painted interiors and outdoor scenes that show the impact of Brouwer’s subjects and style.

The picture shows peasants standing at the entrance to an inn, listening to a man playing the hurdy-gurdy.

Influenced by the Antwerp painter Adriaen Brouwer, Bloot introduced the genre scenes of tavern interiors with drinking peasants to the northern Netherlands in the 1630s.

The 12th-century church, depicted several times in the 1650s by Pieter Saenredam, was demolished in the 19th century.