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Artist or Maker: Cornelis Pietersz. Bega (Haarlem 1631/32-1664)

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Notes: According to Arnold Houbraken, Cornelis Pietersz. Bega was the 'first and best pupil' of Adriaen van Ostade. Bega, grandson of the famous artist Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, was strongly influenced by Van Ostade, and, although he developed a far more personal style than, for example, Cornelis Dusart, his works remained typical of the Haarlem School throughout his short career. Bega lived and worked in Haarlem and only one excursion abroad is recorded: in 1653 he undertook a journey to Germany and Switzerland together with his fellow artists Dirk Helmbreker, Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne and Guillaume Dubois, but no traces of this trip are shown in his works. After his return he joined the Haarlem Guild in 1654. Bega died ten years later of the plague. Houbraken wrote in his Groote Schouburgh: 'By some chance I heard that he was in love with a young woman, whose side he wouldn't leave when she caught the plague, despite the forceful attempts of his mother and the Healers who warned him not to come to near her bed. During the last moments of her life he became distraught and wanted to kiss her farewell. Thus occupied he took a stick from a mop, pointed it towards her, she kissing one end and he the other. Still he was also contaminated and followed her shortly afterwards the same way, in the prime of his life.'

Hitherto unrecorded, the present work is a particularly fine example of the low-life genres Bega liked to paint. The influence of Adriaen van Ostade is evident in style, in the restrained palette, vivid accents and subject matter, and would suggest that the painting is a relatively early work by the artist. The attractive, balanced composition and intimate atmosphere of only a few people in an interior points however towards an already personalized style and therefore at least not from the artist's very earliest career.

Of special interest is the relationship between the present picture and a signed red chalk study by the artist, formerly in the collection of Victor de Stuers, The Hague (see comparative illustration). This drawing, of which the present whereabouts are unknown, represents the young woman depicted in the painting being charmed and seduced by the peasant next to her. It appears to be a preliminary sketch for the present picture, of finished quality and signed, and may well have been drawn from life, as Bega is known to have done. The study of the sleeping head in the upper left corner seems to confirm this.

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