Barent Gael

Barent Gael Horsemen in front of an inn in a landscape around 1656 Oil on canvas. 87 x 87 cm. Framed: 108.5 x 108.5 cm. Signed lower right above the barrel: B. GAEL. Provenance S. Nystad oude kunst n.v., The Hague (1952). - Dutch private collection. Exhibitions Since 1988 on permanent loan from a private collection to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (inv. no. os91-232). - Dutch Art in the Age of Frans Hals from the Collection of Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, The Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, 7.10.-30.11.2003. Literature Exhib. cat.: Dutch Art in the Age of Frans Hals from the Collection of Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, exhib. cat. The Niigata Banmdaijima Art Museum, Tokyo 2003, no. 44, ill. p. 93; RKD https://rkd.nl/imageslite/186194. This scene with resting horses and riders in the foreground, a church tower in the background and a row of packhorses standing at the left edge is typical of Barent Gael from Haarlem. The realization of the horses and the realistic depiction of the encampment tent support the assertion of the Dutch historiographer Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719) that Gael was apprenticed in the workshop of the important Haarlem master Philips Wouwerman (De Groote Schouburgh der Nederl. konstschilders en schilderessen, vol. 3, The Hague 1721). Around 1600 he moved to Amsterdam, where he is first mentioned in a document on March 27, 1673. Most of his paintings are signed "B. GAEL". Fully painted landscapes that extend diagonally into the depths of the picture show his orientation towards his Haarlem painter colleagues Claes Molenaer and Roelof van Vries. The preferred subjects of this Dutch Golden Age painter include hunting parties resting in front of an inn under tall trees, usually with a white horse in front of them; the peasant figures are reminiscent of those of the brothers Adriaen and Isaak van Ostade. The painting has been on permanent loan from a private collection to the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem since 1988.