The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Village Fair

1685

Cornelis Dusart

(Dutch, 1660–1704)
Netherlands
etching
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.)
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection 1944.46
Location: 101A Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

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.

Description

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.
  • ?–1944
    Lewis B. Williams [1880–1966], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    March 17, 1944–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2025-January 11, 2026).
    Promenades, Pageants, Processions, and Pilgrimages. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 25, 1981-January 3, 1982).
  • {{cite web|title=Village Fair|url=false|author=Cornelis Dusart|year=1685|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.46