Joos Van Craesbeeck (1605/6-C.1660)

Joos van Craesbeeck was one of the leading genre painters in de seventeenth-century Southern Netherlands. As the only known pupil of Adriaen Brouwer, he contributed together with David II Teniers (1610-1690) and David III Ryckaert (1612-1661) to the revival of Flemish genre painting in the 1630s. His career was atypical by his combination of jobs. Originally trained as a baker, he did not start to paint until later in life, probably stimulated by the flowering of the arts in Antwerp. Initially he combined his painterly activities with the bakers trade, but with the passing of time he devoted himself entirely to the arts. As so many painters, Joos van Craesbeeck was remarkably mobile. Coming from a prosperous and socially active family in the rather remote Hageland region, he spent his active life in the most important Brabantine cities of the era: first in Antwerp, than in Brussels. Over time, chroniclers have indulged in fantasies about Van Craesbeecks colourful nature to such an extent that in the nineteenth century, he and Adriaen Brouwer were presented as debauched cult heroes. Until today this romantic conceptualization determines the discourse about both painters. In the present book this image is adjusted by means of new findings about the life and work of Joos van Craesbeeck which are based on archival documents and the approximately hundred twenty paintings left behind by the artist. By situating Van Craesbeeck within the socio-economic and cultural world in which he worked, his oeuvre gains in meaning and his status as genre painter in light of reception-aesthetics is clarified. Van Craesbeecks works were primarily mainly intended for the free market and were bought by a cultivated and rather prosperous clientele with a sense of humour. This book is the first monograph that deals exclusively with this fascinating and non-conformist Brabantine genre painter. The catalogue raisonne forms the core of this study which -- for the first time -- assembles and describes at length Van Craesbeecks paintings. The preceding essay is composed of three chapters. After the chronicle of Van Craesbeecks fortunes focussing on the socio-economic and cultural background of the painter as well as his social status, the attention shifts from the second chapter onwards onto his work. In an attempt to reconstruct contemporary expectations, chapter 2 maps out genre-specific and decorum-related qualities of the comical paintings. Finally, a chronological outline is presented which positions Van Craesbeecks undated oeuvre within contemporary Netherlandish painting.