Jan van Wechelen - Peasants merrymaking at a village kermesse -
oil on canvas, height: 49.3 cm (19.4 in); width: 63.7 cm (25 in)
Jan van Wechelen or Hans van Wechelen (c. 1530 – 1570) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp in the middle of the 16th century known for his landscapes, biblical subjects and genre scenes.
Only a few works by Jan van Wechelen are known to exist as most of his oeuvre was destroyed by war and the Iconoclasm of the 16th century. The majority of these are landscapes and religious scenes. His oeuvre also includes a few genres scenes and an architectural painting of a church interior. The artist’s work enjoyed an excellent reputation at the beginning of the 17th century and was collected by Rubens as well as the prominent art collectors Cornelis van der Geest and Pieter Stevens.
Jan van Wechelen collaborated regularly with fellow Antwerp artist Cornelis van Dalem. Van Wechelen was a gifted staffage painter and his dignified figures are regarded as well suited to van Dalem’s landscapes. At least three such collaborations between the two artists are suspected. This includes a Landscape with nomads (also known as Landscape with gypsies at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. This painting likely represents a family of gypsies as a seated woman wears the distinctive oval white hat which was a common indicator for a gypsy woman in 16th century Flemish paintings.
Jan van Wechelen produced three versions of a composition representing a village kermesse with peasants making merry. The prime version painted on panel is now in a private European collection, while two other versions were sold at Sotheby’s respectively on 1 April 1992 (lot 57, on panel) and 5 December 2007 (lot 19, on canvas). There are some differences between the various versions.
Jan van Wechelen succeeded in these genre scenes to bring the kermesses to life. He was close to Pieter Brueghel the Elder in his ability to animate these picturesque scenes with a great number of characters with comical and delightful attitudes. The realism in his genre paintings reveal a rather profane spirit while his lines with clearly emphasized forms connect his work to the rigorist trends that were developing in the Low Countries around 1540
