Galante Scene - Flemish painter of the 18th century

Flemish painter of the 18th century - Follower of Jan van der Meer, called Vermeer d'Utrecht (Schoonhoven, verses 1630 - 1692)
Courtship scene at the entrance of an inn

oil on canvas, 70 x 62 cm. (with frame 80 x 72 cm.)

This pleasant genre scene, depicting a young innkeeper conversing amiably with a gentleman as she prepares to serve him wine in a glass goblet that she still holds in her hand, is inspired by the painting made in 1653 by the Dutch painter Jan van der Meer, known as Vermeer d'Utrecht, and today kept in Paris at the Louvre Museum (https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010062141).

Set outside an inn or a post station, the scene illustrates the theme of seduction, with the young waitress being courted by the client, a charming traveler with a changing red cloak, who tries to charm her.

Yes, it is a work that harmoniously combines the painter's Dutch origins, with the stylistic characters learned during his training in his homeland, with the Italian-like characters learned during his trip to Italy around 1655. In Rome, in particular, he met and collaborated with various authors of the Bamboccianti school, first of all Jan Miel.

The work shows an incredible chromatic refinement and a luministic effect, of typical Flemish derivation, capable of enveloping this moment of everyday life with an aura of rare poetry and intimacy. The result is to be immersed in a suspended atmosphere, as if out of time.

The canvas allows you to appreciate the care with which the artist describes the protagonists, their gestures, attention that indicates a vision and a study from life of everyday life, read and interpreted without literary filters but with a marked naturalism, sincere and passionate.