Figures, cattle and a tooth drawer in a landscape, with musicians on the terrace of a tavern beyond,
indistinctly inscribed lower left,
oil on canvas, 98 x 136 cm, framed

The present painting is the pendant to lot 241 and it was attributed by Giuliano Briganti to the Dutch painter Dirk Theodor Helmbreker (1636–1696), who was active in Rome during the latter half of the seventeenth century (written communication, in copy). The particular attention to the landscape that served as the background to genre paintings, such as the present one, is typical of the last generation of genre painters, called the bamboccianti.

The present painting represents various scenes from popular life, animated by many figures and set within a seemingly idealised hilly landscape. The painter has depicts a series of episodes relating to the everyday life of country-folk, such as the typical scene of a tooth-puller visible in the middle-ground on the right, which reoccurs in the production of the bamboccianti from the period.

This painting is close to other examples of Helmbreker’s paintings made in Rome such as the four Market scenes in the Galleria Colonna (see D. Frascarelli, «Favole non favole»: i mercati di Theodor Helmbreker nelle collezioni romane e fiorentine della seconda metà del ‘600, in: Storia dell’arte, 116-117, 2007, pp. 130-131). Moreover, the detail of the woman seen on the right recalls similar types seen in other paintings by the artist, such as the Cattle-trough or l’Abbeveratoio in a private collection (see L. Laureati in: G. Briganti/L. Trezzani/L. Laureati, I Bamboccianti, Rome 1983, p. 347).