Lot 2023 Dα

This work depicts market women offering their wares - eggs, vegetables, fruit, jars and flutes, fish and grain - in a busy Flemish square. There is dancing in front of an inn. Further back, on a scaffold erected in front of the town hall, a man is being scourged.


A very similar composition, to which Sebastian Vrancx added his monogram, is housed in the Riksmuseum in Amsterdam (SK-C-510). The fact that both pieces are early works by the artist is not only evident in the style, but is also proven by the date of the present version. Vrancx placed the date 1602 on the left side of the roof of a house. Joost van der Auwera, who examined the painting on the original in September 2022, considers it more carefully executed than the copy in Amsterdam. Our painting helps to shed light on a little-known period of the artist.