Peasants Playing Skittles before an Inn

Private collection

genre

Skittles is an old European lawn game, a variety of bowling from which several versions of bowling are descended. It was played for centuries in public houses or clubs.

About the Artist

Cornelis Dusart

1660 – 1704

Dutch genre painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He was the son of the organist at St Bavo in Haarlem and one of the close friends and last pupils of Adriaen van Ostade. He became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St Luke on 10 January 1679 and served as its dean in 1692. Dated pictures by Dusart have survived from almost every year between 1679 and 1702. Some of his earliest pictures of peasants relied heavily on compositions by van Ostade. On van Ostade's death Dusart inherited his pictures and completed a number of them.

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