The Marketplace in Bergen op Zoom

probably 1590 and 1597

Abel Grimmer

Painter, Flemish, c. 1570 - 1618/1619

We look slightly down onto a scene with people gathering in small groups in a cobblestone town square lined with rows of brick, wood, and stone buildings, many with stepped rooflines, in this horizontal painting. Singly or in pairs or trios, men, women, and children walk across the square, move goods around, or talk to merchants. All the people have light skin. Many of the men have mustaches and wear hats, and some carry swords. In tones of black, olive green, brick red, and plum purple, they wear hip-length cloaks over jackets, with white collars or ruffs and brass buttons, and knee-length breeches over yellow or black stockings. The women all wear long dresses in salmon pink, coral red, or golden yellow, with white collars or ruffs, and many wear black, ankle-length cloaks, some with hoods. Closest to us, a sumptuously dressed man and woman walk toward us while another similarly elegant couple walks away. Also facing away from us, to our left, a man wearing a large drum strapped around his waist raises one drumstick as he looks over his left shoulder. Nearby, a woman peers up out of a cellar door that opens on an angle to the street. More couples gather around a well across the square, and two women and a child talk to a third woman selling wares at a wooden table to our right. A pair of hooded priests or monks walk near a man blowing on a trumpet on horseback. The buildings are mostly shades of brick red and brown, and most have three or four stories with steeply pitched roofs. More people walk along side streets leading off the main square. One gap in the buildings across from us leads to a nickel-gray stone church with a pointed spire and square tower. A grassy, green hill rises steeply beyond the buildings to our right, leading down to a waterway that extends up and away into the distance. A few boats float in the water, which reflects the leaden-gray sky. Beyond the town square, a brown stone structure like a fortress with turret towers and crenellated walls looms along the ridge of the hill to our right. Tiny in scale, people on horseback and tending sheep dot the hillside below. The date “1590” is painted on the front of one of the buildings across from us while another date, “1597,” is painted on the end of a short wall near the lower left corner.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 41


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection, Berlin, by 1918; (Fritsche, Berlin); purchased c. 1952 by Mr. and Mrs. Earl H. Look, Washington, D.C.;[1] gift 1979 to NGA.
[1] In a letter to Sturla Gudlaugsson, Institute for Art History, The Hague, dated 22 January 1970 (copy in NGA curatorial files), Earl Look writes: "In about 1952, I bought it from the well-known Oriental art dealer, Herr Fritsche, in Berlin. Fritsche told me that he had obtained it from the estate of a former, pre-World War I Director of the Berlin Art Museum."

Associated Names

Bibliography

1984

  • Vanwesenbeeck, Cees. "Bergen op Zoom in Washington." De Waterschans (March 1984): 13-14, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 190, repro., as by Abel Grimmer.

1991

  • Bertier de Sauvigny, Reine de. Jacob et Abel Grimmer: Catalogue raisonné. Belgium, 1991: 202, 203, 226, no. 25, repro., as by Abel Grimmer.

2005

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 112-116, color repro.

2020

  • Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 140.

Inscriptions

on house at far side of market square: 1590[?]; lower left: 1597 / A[illegible, possibly remnant of a signature]

Wikidata ID

Q20176826


You may be interested in

Loading Results