CORNELIS BEGA
1631/32 - Haarlem - 1664
A Merry Company in a Tavern
Oil on Canvas
19 ½ x 16 ½ ins. (49.5 x 42 cm.)
Provenance
Private collection, Germany.
This painting is accompanied by a letter from Dr Walther Bernt confirming the attribution to Cornelis Bega.
A Merry Company in a Tavern is a characteristic example of Bega’s refined, later manner, in which he employed a beautifully restrained palette of steely grays, deep blues, browns, ochres and pinks.
To the left is seated a young woman in a blue dress, holding a tankard. At her side, a fellow toper puts his arm around her. To the right of them stands a coarsely dressed musician, who tunes his violin as he converses with his friends. Behind them, a smoker sits in contemplation while other figures skulk in the background.
According to Arnold Houbraken’s biography of Bega, he was the “first and best pupil” of Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1684)(i). Like his master, he painted low-life genres scenes of tavern interiors, peasant households and musical subjects. His cast of characters includes nursing mothers, prostitutes, drunks, smokers, gamblers, quack doctors, alchemists and musicians. Whilst Bega’s early multi-figured peasant scenes are clearly derived from van Ostade, he soon went on to develop a distinctive personal style. From about 1660, Bega began to paint genre scenes with fewer figures, which are larger in scale and more finely articulated. These display a certain elegance that belies their often coarse subject matter. His manner of painting also evolved, replacing the loose, fluid brushwork of his early work with a smoother, more refined technique, reminiscent of the Leiden fijnschilders, from whom he drew inspiration in his final years of activity.
Bega was a talented draughtsman who left numerous figure and drapery studies in a style inspired by Italian Renaissance and Flemish drawings. His ability to draw well-proportioned figures, which display a strong sense of realism, underpins his painted compositions.
The work of Cornelis Bega is represented in numerous museums, including the Rijksmuseum, the National Gallery (London), the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Louvre, the Mauritshuis, the Metropolitan Museum (New York), and the Ashmolean Museum.
BIOGRAPHY OF CORNELIS BEGA
Born into a prosperous family in Haarlem in 1632(ii), Cornelis Pietersz. Bega was the son of the goldsmith, Pieter Jansz. Begijn (or Begga) and Maria Cornelisdr., daughter of the renowned mannerist artist, Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (1562-1638). An inventory of 1639 indicates that Maria inherited her father’s gold, silver, paintings and drawings (iii).
Little is known about the life of Cornelis Bega. Arnold Houbraken’s biography of the artist states that in the 1640s Bega was a pupil of Adriaen van Ostade, which explains the close affinity between the work of the two artists(iv).
In 1653, Bega travelled to Germany and Switzerland in the company of the artists Vincent van der Vinne, Theodor Helmbreker and Willem de Bois, returning to Haarlem the same year. In 1654, he entered the painters’ guild in his native city.
Bega succumbed to the plague in Haarlem in 1664 and was given a costly funeral in the church of St. Bavo. Houbraken relates the poignant tale of his premature death: “by some chance I heard that he was in love with a young woman, whose side he would not leave when she caught the plague, despite the forceful attempts of his mother and the Healers who warned him not to come too 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”.
Bega was also an accomplished draughtsman and etcher who left a body of some eighty drawings and thirty-four etchings. Among the artists he influenced were Thomas Wijck, Jan Steen, Richard Brakenburg and Cornelis Dusart.
(i) A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh, 1718-21, vol. I, p. 349-50.
(ii) M. A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/2-1664), as Painter and Draftsman, diss. University of Maryland, 1984, pp. 78.
(iii) M. A. Scott, op. cit, pp. 6-7; P. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, Doornspijk, 1999, pp. 53- 56 and 253-274.
(iv) A. Houbraken, op.cit., p. 349-50