Village Fair (1685): Art, History and Details

Village Fair (1685) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Cornelis Dusart (Dutch, 1660–1704).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Though associated with morally questionable behavior, alcohol in the Netherlands was important to long-standing traditions and vital to the economy. This tension plays out in images of village festivals, church holidays, and family events held outdoors. Compared to the orderly fair portrayed by David Teniers, this one is drunken chaos. A fiddler plays while fights break out and stumbling couples take hands to dance. Dogs, chickens, children, and a herd of pigs fill the disorderly space before a makeshift stage with spontaneous acrobatics. Fueling the frenzy is a tavern, at left, out of which a man staggers with a full pitcher.

Object facts

• Title: Village Fair
• Date: 1685
• Creator attribution: Cornelis Dusart (Dutch, 1660–1704)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Platemark: 26.6 x 34.6 cm (10 1/2 x 13 5/8 in.); Sheet: 27.8 x 35.8 cm (10 15/16 x 14 1/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1944.46

A detail from the museum

Many rural people in the 1600s had at least one pig, dog, or both. The usefulness and flexible diets of these animals made them easy to live with.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.