Pieter Harmensz. Verelst (Dordrecht c. 1618 – 1678 Hulst)

An Italian street scene with Bamboccianti playing cards and a quack preparing concoctions

monogrammed lower right: PVE
oil on panel
13 ⅜ x 11 inches (34 x 28 cm.)

Provenance:
Prof. Dr. Rinecker, Würzburg; Collection Mestern, Hamburg, 1882; Gallery Weber, Hamburg; Weber Sale, Lepke, Berlin, 1912, lot 269, ill. 58; Private Collection, England.

Literature:
G. Parthey, Deutscher Bildersaal, Berlin, 1864, vol. II, p. 40, no. 13; Pflugk-Hartung, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, 1885, VIII, p. 88; F. Schlie, Galerie Weber, Vienna, 1891, p. 6, p. 12.

The Verelst family was something of an artistic dynasty. Pieter Harmensz. Verelst was born in Dordrecht around 1618. In 1638, he was recorded by the Dordrecht guild as a pupil of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675). Verelst moved to The Hague in 1643, where he joined the guild in the same year. In 1656, the artist participated in the foundation of the Confrèrie Pictura, serving on the organization’s committee as a warden. He taught his three sons: Simon (1644-1710/17), who specialized in flower still lifes, Johannes (1648-1700), and Herman Pietersz. (1641/42-1700), both known for portrait painting. Verelst eventually fell heavily into debt, and was compelled to leave The Hague. In 1671, he was recorded in the vicinity of Hulst, near Antwerp, where he seems to have abandoned painting altogether, and instead took up the brewer’s trade.

The present painting depicts a street scene in an Italian village. In the foreground, three peasants play cards, one of them looking mistrustfully at the beholder. A suspicious figure can be seen in the shadows nearby. A quack stands at the dais outside his doorway, pouring a concoction into various bottles. The chart hanging on the wall may testify to his supposedly bona fide credentials. In the shadows of the background, a man in ragged clothing appears to be admonishing a younger man, who kneels in supplication. The influence of Rembrandt, transmitted through Gerrit Dou (Rembrandt’s first pupil), is especially evident in the treatment of light in this painting. The foreground figures appear to be in a spotlight, as though on stage, while the background figures emerge from deep shadow. The buildings stand out darkly against the luminous, Mediterranean sky. It is possible that Verelst was familiar with the famous painting The Quack, dated 1652, by Gerrit Dou, now in the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. St. 4). 

An etching was made after the present painting by the German painter and printmaker William Unger (1775-1855).