Follower of Hendrick Maertensz Rokes called Sorgh (Rotterdam, 1610 or 1611 – 1670), Market scene

Follower of Hendrick Maertensz Rokes called Sorgh (Rotterdam, 1610 or 1611 – 1670)

Market scene

Oil on copper, 45 x 36 – with frame 60 x 50 cm

Published on RKD No. https://rkd.nl/imageslite/647372

In this painting, the lively daily life of the port of Delft comes through clearly, revealing the careful attention to detail typical of a follower of Hendrick Maertensz Sorgh. The painter captures the scene with cheerful meticulousness, making the atmosphere of the city palpable. A young woman intent on her daily errands pauses with interest, her basket clutched to her side, near a fishmonger. Unlike the young man next to her who, distracted, gazes blissfully into the distance, she is declaiming her wares. Four wooden baskets contain realistic fish still immersed in the water to preserve their freshness. Two fish have fallen from a basket, proof of the abundance of the catch. A little further on, some fishermen are busy, while beyond the crystalline water of the small port you can see a bridge with many spans and the pale profile of a mountain. A series of typically Nordic houses near the bridge and on the left of the painting further punctuate the description of the scene. The insistence on details (the stilt-like structure of the house in whose shade the saleswoman sits, the oars leaning against the wall of the house, the cobblestones, the bright shades of the colors, especially green and red) reveal the artist's strong attention to genre scenes. Delft is a city and municipality in the Netherlands belonging to the province of South Holland. It owes its name to the Delf canal ('to dig' in Dutch), an artificial extension of the Schia, on the edges of which the city developed and which still laps it near the southern and eastern border of the historic center. In the present copperplate we see the representation of the Canal.

Hendrick Maertensz Rokes called Sorgh (Rotterdam, between 1610 and 1611 – 1670) was a Dutch painter.

He was probably a pupil of David Téniers and Willem Buytewech; he was in Amsterdam between 1630 and 1632, but lived mainly in Rotterdam, where he is documented in 1651.

He began to paint interior scenes similar to Adriaen Brouwer and Saftleven, such as in the Kitchen Interior of 1640, in the Tavern Scene of 1646, now in the Louvre in Paris, in the Rustic Interior (one in the Dunkirk museum and a second in the Montpellier museum) and in the Kitchen Interior (one in the Caen museum and a second in the Mulhouse museum).

He is best known for his market scenes, with their pleasant and lively colours, influenced by Adriaen van Ostade and Jan Steen: good examples are the Fish Market in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Fish Market of 1653, now in the museums of Kassel and Marseille, and the Market in Rotterdam, now in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.