Peeter Baltens - Dorfkirmes
auction 928, Lot 60
THE RUDOLF NEUMEISTER COLLECTION - HIGHLIGHTS
on 22 October 2019
Peeter Baltens
Dorfkirmes
Differenzbesteuerung
Attributed to Peeter Baltens, 1527/28 - Antwerp - 1584
Village Fair
Left (on the tree trunk), indistinct remnants of a monogram. Oil on panel. 49 x 82 cm. Cradled. Restored. Minor damage to frame. Peeter Baltens was already a member of the Antwerp Saint Lucas Guild by 1541, and its Dean by 1569. Baltens preferred painting genre scenes and anecdotal pictures as well as landscapes. Stylistically, his works are reminiscent of the art of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Baltens poetic talent is demonstrated in his verse-like correspondence with his fellow artist Cornelis Ketel (1548 Gouda - 1616 Amsterdam). Although the present painting has been regarded as the work of Peeter Balten since Frimmels publication, we would like to point out a comparable painting by another artist: the scene bears some striking similarities in arrangement and motif to a "Village Fair" by Sebastiaan Vrancx (1573 - Antwerp - 1647). The two young men depicted in an embarrassing situation in front of the house on the left, as a maid reacts by pouring a jug of water from the window above, can be found on the right side in our painting. The work by Vrancx, formerly from the Hanfstaengl Collection, Munich, was last auctioned in 2014 and is documented at the Rijksbureau voor kunsthistorische Documentatie with the reference number 258099. Expertise by Dr. Walther Bernt, Munich, 25 July 1973. Provenance: Knaur Collection, Vienna (since 1918).
