Offered by White Rose Fine Art
Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot (Utrecht 1586 – 1666 Utrecht)
A Village Scene with Country Folk Making Merry
Oil on panel, 29.8 x 43.3 cm (11.7 x 17 inch); presented in a modern ebonised frame of 17th-century model
Indistinctly signed ‘Droochsloot’ (lower left) and inscribed ‘B.H.’ and ‘Droogsloot’ (brown ink, verso)
Provenance
Private collection Barons van Harinxma thoe Slooten for several generations until 2025
***
Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot was born in Utrecht in 1586 and joined the artists’ guild of St Luke there in 1616, becoming deacon of the guild in 1623 and again in 1641 and 1642.1 He was additionally appointed Governor of the Sint Jacobsgasthuis in 1638, dean of the Reformed Church in 1642 and officer of the Schuttersgilde in 1650 and 1651, all attesting to his successful career and prominent position in Utrecht society.
Droochsloot is thought to have been taught by David Vinckboons I (1576–c.1631) in Amsterdam, while his early works also display the influence of the Breughel family and of Esaias van de Velde (1587–1630). In 1618 he married Agnieten van Rijevelt in the Reformed Church, he bought a house on the Nieuwegracht in 1620 and moved to the Plompetorengracht in 1624. In his turn, Droochsloot taught his son, Cornelis Droochsloot, Cornelis and Jacob Duck and Peter van Straesborgh I.
Droochsloot painted biblical and genre scenes, cavalry skirmishes and topographical views of Utrecht, Amersfoort and The Hague, but he is mostly known for his village fairs or ‘kermesses’, such as the present work, which is one of his most accomplished paintings. Like here, they are typically situated on an on open village square, lined by a church and a variety of thatched and gabled houses and farm buildings, populated by a large assembly of country folk engaged in merry activities. The figures in this intimate panel are particularly well observed and full of humour and character and it is easy to imagine how they would have appealed to picture collectors during the Golden Age, who were amused by depictions of ‘low life’ characters.
Although Droochsloot was active as a painter for more than half a century and his works show little stylistic advancement, he was at the height of his abilities during the early decades of his career. The present recently discovered intimate panel is in fine condition and is particularly close in execution to one of the artist’s finest works, the Village Fair in the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, which is dated 1629 (fig.),2 and it can be supposed that our painting is also from the 1620s. In these relatively early works, Droochsloot’s handling is precise and refined and his colouring is still fairly monochrome, reminiscent of Esaias van de Velde. In later works of the period around 1650, however, Droochsloot’s colouring tends to become stronger and more vibrant, such as can be seen in a particularly large and impressive work of 1649 in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (fig.).3 In addition, paintings by Droochsloot are preserved in the collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Institute of Arts, Detroit, the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the Hermitage, St Petersburg and the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.
1. For the artist, see F. Geurdes, ‘Het vroege werk van Joost Cornelisz. Droochsloot. Nieuwe genres in de Domstad: 1615-1630’, Oud Holland 127 (2014), pp. 195-214 and M.J. Bok, ‘Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot (na 1585-1666) als landschapstekenaar’, in: De verbeelde wereld. Liber amicorum voor Boudewijn Bakker, Bussum 2008, pp. 56-64.
2. Signed and dated 1629, oil on panel, 57.7 x 84 cm; inv. no. 1953-J; Robert Hoozee, Johan De Smet, Bruno Fornari, Ruth Monteyne (eds.), Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent: Catalogus schilderkunst; deel I: 14de - 18de eeuw, Ghent 2007, p. 22, repr.
3. Signed and dated 1649, oil on canvas, 113.6 x 169.8 cm, inv. no. 1176 (OK); Catalogus van schilderijen enz. in het Museum te Rotterdam, gesticht door Mr. F.J.O. Boymans, Catalogus schilderijen tot 1800, Rotterdam 1962, p. 13, cat. no. 64.
