Joos van Craesbeeck

Joos van Craesbeeck (c. 1605/06 – c. 1660) was a Flemish baker and a painter who played an important role in the development of Flemish genre painting in the mid-17th century through his tavern scenes and dissolute portraits. His genre scenes depict low-life figures as well as scenes of middle-class people.

Life Joos van Craesbeeck was born in Neerlinter (now a village in Flemish Brabant, Belgium). His father was also called Joos and is believed to have been a baker. His mother's name was Gertruid van Callenborch. In 1630 or 1631 Joos van Craesbeeck married Johanna Tielens. His wife's father was a baker but her family also counted artists among its members: the landscape painter Jan Tielens was her uncle while two of her uncles on her mother's side were the sculptors Melchior and Caspar Grison.

The Tielens family was also responsible for the operation of the bakery in Antwerp Citadel. When the painter Adriaen Brouwer was imprisoned in the citadel, van Craesbeeck likely got to know him. Based on information provided by contemporary Flemish biographer Cornelis de Bie in his book Het Gulden Cabinet van Craesbeeck is believed to have become Brouwer's pupil and best friend. Their relationship was described by de Bie as 'Soo d’oude songhen, soo pypen de jonghen' (As the old ones sang, so the young ones chirp'). The stylistic similarities of van Craesbeeck's early work with that of Brouwer seems to corroborate such pupilage.

The death date of van Craesbeeck is not known with certainty but it must be situated between 1660 and 1661 since in 1660 a Lucas Viters was registered as his pupil at the Guild and a year later Cornelis de Bie reported him as deceased.

In his self-portraits, van Craesbeeck typically represented the sense of 'taste', which he expressed by painting himself as a drinker or a smoker. An example is The Smoker in the Louvre Museum. Most frequently he depicted himself as a drinker as in the Self-Portrait as a Drinker. This painting shows him grinning, with bulging eyes, untamed hair and dressed in peasant's clothes. He is clutching a full glass of wine. The rough style of these self-portraits is typical for the peasant vernacular of the genre. His lively, boorish expressions show his deep understanding of the peasant character.

Guardroom scene Van Craesbeeck also painted A guardroom interior with soldiers playing cards, which falls within the genre of the guardroom scene. A guardroom scene typically depicts an interior scene with officers and soldiers engaged in merrymaking. Guardroom scenes often included mercenaries and prostitutes dividing booty, harassing captives or indulging in other forms of reprehensible activities.

"Piskijken" He also painted a few paintings in the subgenre referred to as "piskijken" ("pee looking"), which typically shows a woman with a doctor or quack performing a pregnancy test by looking at a sample of her urine. An example is The doctor's visit (Brukenthal Museum), which shows in the background a young woman who seems to have collapsed and is being comforted. In the foreground stands a person (a doctor or a quack?) who is holding up a vial with the woman's urine. A shadow of a foetus is visible in the vial, a sign that the young woman is pregnant.