(Mechelen circa 1565–1628 Antwerp)
Peasants at a village during festivities,
oil on canvas, 74 x 117 cm, framed

We are grateful to Luuk Pijl for confirming the authenticity and for his help in cataloguing the present painting. A certificate is available.

Probably originating from Malines, Pieter van der Hulst the Elder was recorded in 1583 as a pupil of Gillis Vinckeboons in Antwerp. In 1589 he was admitted to the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. During the following decade he had numerous pupils, including his son, as well as Pieter de Witte and the well-known future landscape painter Jan Wildens. His known paintings featuring figures are dependent on Sebastian Vrancx, who returned from Rome in 1602, while his pure landscape subjects are forerunners of the rural landscapes by Jan Wildens. His work is relatively rare: examples can be found in the museums of Brunswick, Copenhagen and Mönchengladbach.
The present large-sized painting shows a village centre dominated by two monumental trees. The square is surrounded by houses and trees, and in the middle distance a church is depicted. The visual focus is formed by an elevated mill in the background of the composition. The painting vibrates with human activity and the crowd is executed in powerful local colours, with especially the reds and greens of the clothes standing out from the rest.

Van der Hulst’s Peasants at a Village during festivities relates to the signed painting Peasants Celebrating a Feast Day in a Village, sold at Christie’s, London, on 11 December 1992 as lot 69 and subsequently with Raffael Valls, London. The figures, the trees and the buildings are executed in the very same manner. The London painting is dated, but only the first digits, “16 ..”, are legible.

Given the similarities with comparable works jointly painted by Joos de Moomper and Jan Breughel the Elder, a date of execution during the 1620s seems plausible for the present painting.