A Flemish Collation. From the Original Picture, Painted by Van Harp, In the Collection of the Right Honourable the Earl of Bute

Book Description

London: John Boydell, 2 November 1765. Copper engraving, coloured by hand, by Isaac Taylor, from Richard Earlom's design after van Herp. 19 3/8 x 25 1/4 inches. A very fine genre picture, expertly interpreted by Earlom and Walker. The artist of the original work is probably Willem van Herp (not Harp as in the title): the most likely candidate from amongst a prolific family of 16th-century Flemish painters. This good-humored scene shows the interior of a Flemish tavern. A number of guests sit around a table spread with a ham and bread. Hot soup is also available which a matron tries to feed to her child, her husband sits next to her with the bowl balanced precariously on his knee. The inn-keeper hands round glasses of wine that he pours from a flagon. At the staircase entrance to the room a women stands with apples held up in her apron whilst the man next to her calls out, reaches in to the apron and throws fruit to anyone who answers him: two young men hold out their hats to catch the fruit in the room below.

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