Neerlinter, Antwerp and Brussels, circa 1605 -1654 · Tavern, satire and grotesque faces

A marriage is negotiated around self-interested gestures; three figures grimace in a burlesque trio. Craesbeeck observes social conventions like a theater where the face always ends up betraying the role.

Joos van Craesbeeck was born around 1605 in Neerlinter in Brabant. Son of a baker, he himself practiced this profession and entered the guild of Saint-Luc in Antwerp as a baker and painter in 1633 -1634. Documents from 1637 show him the owner of a house with a bakery: the two activities really coexist. His language was formed through contact with Adriaen Brouwer, from whom he took over the taverns, small popular figures, the free touch and attention to facial conditions. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost monochrome palette and sometimes reveal the preparation of the panel. His first works use an almost mon burlesque is exemplary: the grotesque features and crude gestures transform the three protagonists into an expressionist study of derision. The Marriage Contract applies the same lucidity to a more structured social scene. Around agreement, looks and hands reveal negotiation, interest, consent or calculation. Installed in Brussels around 1650, Craesbeeck clarified his palette, multiplied the figures and approached more bourgeois interiors, but he never renounced popular types or satire. His work thus shows how genre painting can be at once comic, material and deeply attentive to human relationships. The selection Josse van Craesbeeck" notably compares The Marriage Contract and The Burlesque Trio. Its reading favors atmosphere.

Craesbeeck paints what politeness would like to hide: the interest behind the contract, the grimace behind the singing and the body behind the social role.