Market Scene with a Quack at his Stall

genre

This painting was painted about 1650 but the style and manner of presentation are those of an earlier period. This was the beginning of the great period of middle-class genre painting when artists were developing a style quite different from Victor's over-familiar anecdotical approach. The market-place is in fact limited to the quack's table with an awning over it, and the group of simple people crowding round the stall.

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About the Artist

Jan Victors

1619 – 1676

Dutch painter, one of Rembrandt 's lesser known pupils, who joined Rembrandt's studio around 1635. He was far from being a genius and his life was a hard one. He tried to make a living by giving nurcing assistance to families stricken by the plague, and he died during a voyage to the East Indies where he was hoping to retrieve his fortunes. His style, compared with that of his contemporaries, was coarse, vulgar and declamatory. He based his genre paintings on stories from the Bible, and he also painted humorous conversation pieces.

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