Cornelis Dusart

Haarlem c. 1660 - 1704

The visual arts were extremely popular in Holland in the 17th century. Even people of modest means bought paintings for the walls of their small rooms. The art market was flourishing and there were enough clients for the innumerable painters. This abundance of fellow artists was perhaps the reason why many Dutch painters of the 17th century specialized in some particular subject matter. Fairs, village festivals and kermesses were distinctively Flemish subjects and they culminated in the works of Pieter Brueghel in the 16th century. The unembellished portrayal of the life of the common people was brought to the Protestant northern Netherlands by Adrian Brouwer. His pupil Adrian van Ostade was in his turn the teacher of Cornelis Dusart, who was one of the late specialists in this theme. Cornelis Dusart was an able painter, although he never quite reached the rough poetry of Brouwer or the cosy, shabby atmosphere and light touch of the Ostade brothers. Dusart's style was harder and clearer and he used stronger caricatures as well as contrasts of colour, light, and shadow in his works.