Jan Josephsz van Goyen
Village Street Fair
1651-1654
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Jan Josephsz van Goyen
Village Street Fair
1651-1654
Physical Qualities
Brush and gray wash and pen and brown ink over black chalk, Sheet: 175 × 275 mm. (6 7/8 × 10 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Women's Committee and Friends of Art Funds; and purchase with exchange funds from Garrett Collection
Object Number
1965.17
Jan Josephsz. van Goyen was one of the most prolific landscape artists of the 17th century. His compositions range from sweeping vistas of land, water, and sky (as seen in his nearby painting "View of Rhenen") to more intimate glimpses of towns teeming with tiny figures. Here van Goyen drew inspiration from the popular entertainment of a street show at a village fair where a temporary stage has been set up for the traveling actors and musicians to perform for a crowd of onlookers of all ages. Van Goyen’s eye for charming and anecdotal detail is evinced by the small figures peeping out from behind and above the stage’s curtained backdrop.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, by purchase; R.M. Light & Co., Inc.; Hendrikus Egbertus Ten Cate; B. Houthakker Galleries, Amsterdam?; Ant. W.M. Mensing; Bellingham Smith?; Alfred Beurdeley (Lugt 421)
A. Beurdeley Sale, Paris, Georges Petit, June 1920, no. 223, repr.
Ant. W. M. Mensing Sale, Amsterdam, Mensing & Fils / Frederik Muller & Cie, 27-29 April 1937, no. 224.
D. Hannema. "Catalogue of the H.E. Ten Cate Collection." Rotterdam: AD Donker, 1955, no. 223
Inscribed: Recto: at left center, in black chalk: "VG 1655"; at lower right, in black chalk: "VG 1652" Verso: [needs to be unframed]
Markings: CM: recto: at lower left: A. Beurdeley (Lugt 421) WM: fool's cap with three balls
