CRAESBEECK, Josse van

Van Craesbeeck’s work of the 1650s does not differ substantially from that of the previous decade, except that his colouring gained a still greater brightness. He assembles the characters who - often in large numbers - populate his paintings, harmoniously and in tight, coherent groups. The Company of Peasants in a Tavern is a good example of this.

In this and other related paintings by Van Craesbeeck after 1640 there is a certain theatricality. Compared with his earlier work, the colouring has become clearer and more descriptive and the smoky Brouwerian tonality has given way to a more uniform and brighter lighting which makes the figures look more emphatically modelled.

The painting is also known as Quarrel in a Pub.

Josse van Craesbeeck was a baker and acquired citizenship of Antwerp in this profession where he married the daughter of the prison baker. According to the legend it was as a result of this that he came into contact with Adriaen Brouwer, who was imprisoned for his debts and Craesbeeck provided him with bread in the citadel. Craesbeeck was very close to Brouwer, united by their shared enjoyment of inns and because Brouwer instructed Craesbeeck in drawing.

Craesbeeck started off in the same monochrome style as Brouwer, which he abandoned to a certain extent later on.

The painting depicts a guardroom interior with soldiers playing cards.

This genre scene shows the interior of an inn with a peasant smoking a pipe and a soldier drinking, other figures smoking and drinking in the background.

The panel represents an example of Craesbeeck’s early depictions of tavern interiors. He was a pupil of Adriaen Brouwer whose scenes of Flemish and Dutch alehouses influenced the subject matter that he subsequently explored.

The painting shows an officer reading a letter in a military encampment beside the walls of a castle. The military theme and the vivid use of colour characterise Craesbeeck’s late period, and would subsequently be echoed in the work of Gillis van Tilborch.

This small painting shows a peasant grimacing with his arm in a sling. Craesbeeck’s chief concern here is the accurate rendering of a face distorted by a grimace which is a result of his broken arm, supported here in a dingy, handmade sling.

Craesbeeck started off in the same monochrome style as Adriaen Brouwer, which he abandoned to a certain extent later on. In the 1640s he frequently placed his group of drinkers in the outdoors as well as using brighter colours.

Craesbeeck’s early work before 1640 possesses a rather monochrome tonality. From that time date several caricatured heads of peasants, executed with remarkably free touch. Compositions with more figures can also be placed in this early period because of their dark atmospheric tonality defined by chiaroscuro, as seen in the Tavern Scene showing a quarrel at an inn.

Craesbeeck was the pupil of Adriaen Brouwer, and his entire oeuvre reveals his master’s influence.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Francesco da Milano: Tre fantasie for lute