Animated village scene - Théobald MICHAUD (1676-1755)

This characteristic work by Théobald de Michaud shows a large Flemish landscape with a rich background of figures. In the foreground, on the left, is a lively market scene with stalls and passersby. Further to the right, the landscape extends across a river to a town on the other side. In the middle, a group of dark trees serve as a landmark motif for the landscape that spreads widely across the viewer's field of vision in soft shades of green and blue.
Many details are visible all the way to the horizon.
The composition of our painting as well as the atmospheric perspective in blue and green reveals the influence of the Antwerp meters Jan Brueghel the elder and Joos de Monper in the work of Theobald Michau.
Michau studied in Tournai in the studio of the Flemish landscape painter Lucas Achtschellinck (1626-1699) and was already in demand as a landscape painter during his lifetime.
His scenes of popular festivals, in the tradition of David Tenier the younger, were also very popular.