The Kermesse at Hoboken

Pieter Brueghel

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This busy drawing shows revelers at a festival in the Flemish village of Hoboken. A group of archers are in the bottom left-hand corner. In the centre a horse is pulling a wagon, and a man sits on its back drinking from an urn. On the right of this a group of villagers are dancing in a circle holding hands, with two people sitting in the centre. There are pigs and ducks roaming around in the midst of the many people. There are several buildings in the drawing, including one in the foreground on the left with a large banner being hung out of its uppermost window. Behind this, at the top-centre of the drawing, is a church with a procession outside, including two men carrying a statue aloft on a stretcher. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "12. PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER (b. 1525; d. 1569) THE KERMESSE AT HOBOKEN Collection of Henry Oppenheimer, Esq. From the Collection of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart., of Gairloch (Sale, Sotheby's, February 15-16, 1921, lot 216). Pen and bistre. Signed: '1559 | BRVEGEL.' 26.5 x 39.4 cm. (10 3/8 x 15 1/2 in.). A first-rate example of Bruegel's witty delineation of contemporary life, full of amusing incidents and keenly observed gestures, from those of the man staggering under a heavy statue of a bishop in the religious procession at the top to those of the three ducks greedily exploring the mud at the bottom on the right. The title of the drawing is known by the contemporary engraving done from it in reverse by an anonymous engraver (R. Van Bastelaer, Les Estampes de P. Bruegel l'Ancien, 1908, No. 208), published first by Bartolomeus de Mumpere and later by Jan Galle. The engraving contains Bruegel's name, but not the date. The inscription on the large flag hung out from a window on the right of the engraving is 'Dit is de Gulde van Hoboken'. The words which follow this in the original inscription on the drawing are not engraved. The drawing has been somewhat cut, especially at the top, where the engraving shows more of the trees and the church tower and the pointed top, surmounted by a cross, of a smaller round tower. The upper corner on the right has been made up. The engraving is much inferior to the original in the rendering of detail. C. D."