Kermesse of Oudenarde

This painting on copper is the only known signed painting by Bartholomeus Grondonck. The composition is based on a painting by David Vinckboons which is known to us today through his detailed drawing in the print room of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. Vinckboons’s composition was so popular in its day, and so influential, that it was widely reproduced by engravers.

For a long time the painting has been known as the Kermesse of Oudenaarde because the elaborate building in the central middle ground resembles, and is probably based upon, the town hall in Oudenaarde, south of Ghent.