We look slightly down onto a scene with people gathering in small groups in a cobblestone town square lined with rows of brick, wood, and stone buildings, many with stepped rooflines, in this horizontal painting. Singly or in pairs or trios, men, women, and children walk across the square, move goods around, or talk to merchants. All the people have light skin. Many of the men have mustaches and wear hats, and some carry swords. In tones of black, olive green, brick red, and plum purple, they wear hip-length cloaks over jackets, with white collars or ruffs and brass buttons, and knee-length breeches over yellow or black stockings. The women all wear long dresses in salmon pink, coral red, or golden yellow, with white collars or ruffs, and many wear black, ankle-length cloaks, some with hoods. Closest to us, a sumptuously dressed man and woman walk toward us while another similarly elegant couple walks away. Also facing away from us, to our left, a man wearing a large drum strapped around his waist raises one drumstick as he looks over his left shoulder. Nearby, a woman peers up out of a cellar door that opens on an angle to the street. More couples gather around a well across the square, and two women and a child talk to a third woman selling wares at a wooden table to our right. A pair of hooded priests or monks walk near a man blowing on a trumpet on horseback. The buildings are mostly shades of brick red and brown, and most have three or four stories with steeply pitched roofs. More people walk along side streets leading off the main square. One gap in the buildings across from us leads to a nickel-gray stone church with a pointed spire and square tower. A grassy, green hill rises steeply beyond the buildings to our right, leading down to a waterway that extends up and away into the distance. A few boats float in the water, which reflects the leaden-gray sky. Beyond the town square, a brown stone structure like a fortress with turret towers and crenellated walls looms along the ridge of the hill to our right. Tiny in scale, people on horseback and tending sheep dot the hillside below. The date “1590” is painted on the front of one of the buildings across from us while another date, “1597,” is painted on the end of a short wall near the lower left corner.

The Marketplace in Bergen op Zoom

Abel Grimmer (attributed)

We look slightly down onto a scene with people gathering in small groups in a cobblestone town square lined with rows of brick, wood, and stone buildings, many with stepped rooflines, in this horizontal painting. Singly or in pairs or trios, men, women, and children walk across the square, move goods around, or talk to merchants. All the people have light skin. Many of the men have mustaches and wear hats, and some carry swords. In tones of black, olive green, brick red, and plum purple, they wear hip-length cloaks over jackets, with white collars or ruffs and brass buttons, and knee-length breeches over yellow or black stockings. The women all wear long dresses in salmon pink, coral red, or golden yellow, with white collars or ruffs, and many wear black, ankle-length cloaks, some with hoods. Closest to us, a sumptuously dressed man and woman walk toward us while another similarly elegant couple walks away. Also facing away from us, to our left, a man wearing a large drum strapped around his waist raises one drumstick as he looks over his left shoulder. Nearby, a woman peers up out of a cellar door that opens on an angle to the street. More couples gather around a well across the square, and two women and a child talk to a third woman selling wares at a wooden table to our right. A pair of hooded priests or monks walk near a man blowing on a trumpet on horseback. The buildings are mostly shades of brick red and brown, and most have three or four stories with steeply pitched roofs. More people walk along side streets leading off the main square. One gap in the buildings across from us leads to a nickel-gray stone church with a pointed spire and square tower. A grassy, green hill rises steeply beyond the buildings to our right, leading down to a waterway that extends up and away into the distance. A few boats float in the water, which reflects the leaden-gray sky. Beyond the town square, a brown stone structure like a fortress with turret towers and crenellated walls looms along the ridge of the hill to our right. Tiny in scale, people on horseback and tending sheep dot the hillside below. The date “1590” is painted on the front of one of the buildings across from us while another date, “1597,” is painted on the end of a short wall near the lower left corner.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Abel Grimmer
Date
probably 1590 and 1597
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 63.8 x 82.2 cm (25 1/8 x 32 3/8 in.)
Department
CNE-B
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Earl H. Look

Art Genome Taxonomy

10 tags

Subject Matter

  • Scenes of Everyday Life Both · 99%

    The title identifies a marketplace, and the image shows a town square populated by merchants, shoppers, workers, and other participants in daily urban activity.

  • Cityscapes and City Scenes Both · 99%

    The composition centers on a dense built environment with streets, multistory buildings, a church, and a civic square; the catalog identifies the setting as Bergen op Zoom.

  • Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 90%

    A waterway with boats, a green hillside, and distant terrain occupy the background beyond the town.

  • Work and Workers Both · 95%

    Figures visibly transport goods, operate market stalls, push carts, and participate in other forms of commerce and labor.

Visual Qualities

  • Earth Tones Visual · 94%

    Muted brick reds, browns, olive greens, gray-blues, salmon, and plum tones dominate the buildings, clothing, paving, hillside, and sky.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 95%

    The square is densely occupied by architecture, figures, stalls, carts, animals, and architectural details across the broad horizontal format.

  • Highly Detailed Visual · 95%

    Small figures, stepped gables, windows, market goods, carts, church details, and distant fortifications are rendered with extensive descriptive detail.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art catalogs the medium as oil on panel.

  • Long Distance and Deep Distance Visual · 90%

    The elevated view recedes from the foreground square through the town toward the distant waterway, hillside, and fortified structure.

Time Periods

  • 16th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog dates the work probably to 1590 and 1597, placing it within sixteenth-century art.

Source & rights

Attributed to Abel Grimmer. The Marketplace in Bergen op Zoom. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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