Support The single, horizontally grained, quarter-sawn oak plank is approx. 1 cm thick. The right edge seems to have been trimmed and a wooden strip (approx. 0.9 cm) was added with a lap joint at a later date. The reverse has wide bevelling (approx. 4.5 cm) at the top and bottom and on the right, and a narrow bevel (approx. 2.2 cm) on the left. Although the reverse has been sanded smooth, it has remnants of a panel maker’s mark in the centre. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1631. The plank could have been ready for use by 1642, but a date in or after 1648 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The smooth double ground extends over the edges of the support at the top and bottom and on the left. The right edge is obscured by the added strip and overpaint. The first, white layer seems primarily to fill the grain of the wood. The second, semi-translucent light beige layer contains coarse white, some red-brown and a few black pigment particles.
Underdrawing Fine lines in what appears to be a dry medium are visible to the naked eye in the area above the rectangular sail. Infrared reflectography revealed many more lines throughout, most clearly underneath the two large sails and the house with the stepped gable, where various masts and rigging were drawn but not painted. It also showed that the house had a peaked roof in the underdrawing.
Paint layers The paint extends over the edges of the support at the top and bottom and on the left. The right edge is obscured by the added strip and overpaint. An undermodelling was applied in browns and a grey tone was added, possibly in a second phase of undermodelling. Both underlayers have remained visible along some of the contours of the figures. The brown has also been left locally uncovered as part of the composition, for example in the hair of the woman standing on the right. The layers were generally applied from dark to light, rather thinly, especially in the sky and architecture where the wood grain is readily visible. The sky was blended wet in wet, beginning with grey, then white and finally the blues, and executed with clearly visible brushstrokes, as were the rooftops. The roofs and sails extend quite far over the sky. Some of the paint of the sky along the top edge seems to have been pushed aside while still wet, possibly by the original frame. The figures were painted smoothly. The faces and hands were rendered first, followed by the costumes and the dark outlines. The lace of the cap of the woman near the mussel cart was created by delicately scratching in the wet, white paint. Infrared reflectography revealed contour shifts and various changes. The rectangular sail, for example, was made larger. The roof of the house was first painted as a simple peak, consistent with the underdrawing, but then changed into a stepped gable. The man on the far left was initially positioned further to the left, and the dog in the centre further to the right.
Laurent Sozzani, 2011 / additions by Esther van Duijn, 2014

Good. The picture is partially obscured by an earlier, yellowed varnish.

…; ? the artist’s grandson, Hendrik Sorgh (1666-1720), Amsterdam, with pendant (‘een Italiaansche Markt, met veel gewoel van beelden, en voor aan een vrouwtje dat uitstalt met verscheide sort van doode Vogels’), in or before 1719;¹¹A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, II, Amsterdam 1719, p. 90: ‘Een Vismarkt, meê vol gewoel’. ? his sale, Amsterdam (auction house not known), 28 March 1720, no. 19 (‘Een Vismarkt, van dito [Hendrik Martensz. Sorg], zynde een weerga niet minder’), with pendant, no. 18 (‘Een Vrouwtje met Vogels’), fl. 175;²²G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt: Benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, I, The Hague 1752, p. 243.…; ? probate inventory, George Bruyn (1682-1723) and his wife, Lavina van Oosterwijck (1687-1723), Amsterdam, 25 January-10 June 1724, no. 14 (‘Een vismartje met beeltjes’), with pendant, no. 13 (‘Een vrouwtje met vogels en andre beeltjes’);³³SA, NA 5684 A; GPI N-1157. ? sale, George Bruyn, Amsterdam (auction house not known), 16 March 1724, no. 15 (‘Een Vismarktje met Beeldjes’), with pendant, no. 14 (‘Een Vrouwtje met Vogels en andere Beeldjes’), fl. 318;⁴⁴G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt: Benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, I, The Hague 1752, p. 299.…; ? sale [Wannaar et al.], Amsterdam (De Leth), 17 May 1757, no. 112 (‘Een Boere Vismarkt met diverse Beelden en bywerk. Hoog 19½ duim, br. 25½ duim [50.1 x 65.5 cm]’), with pendant;⁵⁵Hofstede de Groot notes, RKD; the catalogue could not be located.…; sale, Anna Maria Ebeling (1767-1812, Amsterdam), wife of Paul Iwan Hogguer (1760-1816, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 18 August 1817, no. 108 (‘hoog 19, breed 25 duimen [48.8 x 64.3 cm]. Paneel. In eene Nederlandsche stad ziet men eene Vischmarkt, rijk gestoffeerd met vischvrouwen, welke druk bezig zijn, hunne waar onderscheidene kopers aan te bieden; op den voorgrond, ter regterzijde van den beschouwer, staat eene dienstmaagd, met een’ emmer tegen een’ mosselwagen leunende, geld aan den ouden mosselman te bieden […]’), fl. 595, to Coclers;⁶⁶Copy RKD.…; from the dealer Albertus Brondgeest, Amsterdam, fl. 1.900, to Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), Amsterdam, February 1839;⁷⁷Lijst van schilderijen, beelden en teekeningen van Adriaan van der Hoop te Amsterdam, NHA, ARS, no. 388 (copy in Rijksmuseum Research Library), p. 28, no. 184: ‘in het begin van februari gekocht van A: Brondgeest een zeer fraaye Voorstelling van de Vischmarkt te Rotterdam. Door Hend. Martensz. Zorg, zynde zeer uitvoerig en konstig naar ’t leven geschildert en het is een meesterstuk vermeld in de Schouwburg van Schilders door A: Houbraken II Deel p. 289. en omstandig beschreven in de Levensbeschryving der Ned. Konstschilders door J: Campo Weyerman II Deel nr. 173 hebbende daarvoor betaald 1900-’. by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam, with 223 other paintings, 1854;⁸⁸Taxatie van schilderijen, teekeningen en beeldhouwwerken gedaan door Pieter E.H. Praetorius en Gerrit de Vries Jz., executeuren van het testament van A. van der Hoop [...] 29 april 1854, NHA, ARS, no. 388 (copy in Rijksmuseum Research Library), p. 1, no. 184: ‘Eene Vischmarkt ryk aan stoffage fl. 775’. on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum since 30 June 1885⁹⁹Eighteenth-century provenance reconstructed by Sutton in P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exh. cat. Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie)/London (Royal Academy of Arts) 1984, p. 306, note 2. Nineteenth-century provenance reconstructed in A. Pollmer, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al., De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier: De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum; Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-95, esp. p. 175, no. 167.

Object number: SK-C-227

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)

Hendrick Martensz Sorgh began painting market scenes around the middle of the seventeenth century. They were already being made in the previous century, but now took on a fresh lease of life, and Sorgh was one of the first artists to profit from the renewed interest in them.¹²¹²Sutton in P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exh. cat. Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie)/London (Royal Academy of Arts) 1984, p. 305. For the subject see also L.A. Stone-Ferrier, ‘Gabriel Metsu’s Vegetable Market at Amsterdam: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Market Paintings and Horticulture’, The Art Bulletin 71 (1989), pp. 428-52, esp. p. 428, and W.E. Franits, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution, New Haven/London, p. 191. This was a fairly logical choice of specialization for him, since he was a market bargeman who ferried people and produce from the countryside to the city. This picture, with its muted colours, captures the bustle of a fish market.¹³¹³For the importance of the fishing industry for Rotterdam, and for the city’s fish markets see A. van der Schoor, Stad in aanwas: Geschiedenis van Rotterdam tot 1813, Zwolle 1999, pp. 196-200. In the foreground, a woman is selling fish on the left and, on the right, a man fills a young woman’s bucket with mussels from a barrow. In the background on the right, a man is cleaning a freshly landed catch. The stork on the far left was a welcome guest because it ate the fish scraps.¹⁴¹⁴De Jongh in L.M. Helmus (ed.), Vis: Stillevens van Hollandse en Vlaamse meesters 1550-1700, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 343. As is usually the case with Sorgh, this is not a true-to-life market in his hometown of Rotterdam but a free interpretation of what was to be seen there.¹⁵¹⁵On this see L.T. Schneeman, Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh: A Painter of Rotterdam, diss., The Pennsylvania State University 1982, p. 133. Sorgh’s fellow townsman Adriaen Lucasz Fonteyn painted a similar, but far larger, market scene in 1657, The Mussel Market near the Roobrug, panel, 86 x 147 cm, also in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-1941). Schneeman, who dated this picture to around 1649-50 on the evidence of the fairly monochrome palette and the rather unstructured composition, believed that it may be Sorgh’s earliest surviving market scene.¹⁶¹⁶L.T. Schneeman, Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh: A Painter of Rotterdam, diss., The Pennsylvania State University 1982, pp. 130, 214, and L.T. Schneeman, ‘Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh as Painter of Market Scenes’, in R.E. Fleischer and S. Scott Munshower (eds.), The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Penn State University Park 1988, pp. 169-75, esp. p. 170. That date has been accepted in A. Pollmer, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al., De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier: De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum; Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-95, esp. p. 175, and by De Jongh in L.M. Helmus (ed.), Vis: Stillevens van Hollandse en Vlaamse meesters 1550-1700, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 343. Several other early fish markets of his are in Marseille (1650-53) and Kassel (1654).¹⁷¹⁷Respectively Musée des Beaux-Arts (illustrated in J.-A. Gibert, Le Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille, coll. cat. Marseille 1932, p. 5) and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (illustrated in B. Schnackenburg, Gesamtkatalog Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Kassel, coll. cat. Kassel 1996, II, pl. 155). Various authors have argued that Sorgh may have been inspired by old prints, such as those by Adriaen van de Venne¹⁸¹⁸L.T. Schneeman, ‘Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh as Painter of Market Scenes’, in R.E. Fleischer and S. Scott Munshower (eds.), The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Penn State University Park 1988, p. 170, points out similarities to a 1623 print of a mussel fisherman after a design by Van de Venne; illustrated on p. 176. See also the drawing of the subject by Sorgh’s teacher Willem Buytewech, New York, The Morgan Library & Museum; illustrated in E. de Jongh and G. Luijten, Mirror of Everyday Life: Genreprints in the Netherlands 1550-1700, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1997, p. 238. and Jan van de Velde.¹⁹¹⁹In this connection E.A. Honig, ‘Country Folk and City Business: A Print Series by Jan van de Velde’, The Art Bulletin 78 (1996), pp. 511-26, esp. p. 513, mentions a print of 1616 by Van de Velde, illustrated on p. 516. For the iconography see also De Jongh in E. de Jongh and G. Luijten, Mirror of Everyday Life: Genreprints in the Netherlands 1550-1700, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1997, pp. 149-50.

The nineteenth-century collector Adriaan van der Hoop, who bought this painting in 1839, believed that it was the work that Houbraken describes in his Groote schouburgh of 1719 as ‘a fish market, full of bustle’.²⁰²⁰Lijst van schilderijen, beelden en teekeningen van Adriaan van der Hoop te Amsterdam, NHA, ARS, no. 388 (copy in Rijksmuseum Research Library), p. 28, no. 184; see Provenance. Houbraken’s remark about the fish market being ‘full of bustle’ (see Provenance, note 1) was repeated by J. Campo Weyerman, De Levens-Beschryvingen der Nederlandsche Konst-schilders en Konst-schilderessen, met een uytbreyding over de Schilder-Konst der Ouden, II, The Hague/Dordrecht 1729, pp. 173-74. At one time it and a companion piece of a poultry market were in the possession of the Amsterdam broker and art lover Hendrik Sorgh, a grandson of the artist.²¹²¹Houbraken calls Hendrik Sorgh a nephew of the painter, but P. Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, ‘Rotterdamsche schilders’, Oud Holland 10 (1892), pp. 238-56, esp. pp. 245-46, persuasively argues that he was a grandson. Sutton also suspected that the fish market mentioned by Houbraken is the one in the Rijksmuseum.²²²²Sutton in P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exh. cat. Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie)/London (Royal Academy of Arts) 1984, p. 306, note 2. Unfortunately, the lack of supporting evidence such as the dimensions of those paintings makes it impossible to test that assumption.²³²³Pollmer citing the summary description in G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt: Benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, I, The Hague 1752, p. 243, is a little hasty rejecting the identification with the works mentioned by Houbraken and Campo Weyerman; A. Pollmer, ‘Catalogus van de schilderijen in de verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop’, in E. Bergvelt et al., De Hollandse meesters van een Amsterdamse bankier: De verzameling van Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum; Rijksmuseum) 2004-05, pp. 135-95, esp. p. 175.

If the Rijksmuseum Fish Market is indeed the work that was in the collection of the artist’s grandson in the early eighteenth century it must have had a poultry market as a companion piece. However, no such picture has been located. Sutton proposed a market scene with a female poultry seller in Basel (fig. a),²⁴²⁴Sutton in P.C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exh. cat. Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie)/London (Royal Academy of Arts) 1984, p. 306, note 2. but it is not a likely candidate. Admittedly, both panels do have roughly the same dimensions,²⁵²⁵The size of the Fish Market is 47.8 x 65.8 cm and the Basel Poultry Market measures 49.5 x 65 cm. but they are not convincing as a pair. Nor does Houbraken’s description of the pendant as an ‘Italian market’ appear to have any relation to the Basel painting, which shows a stall by a Gothic church.²⁶²⁶A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, II, Amsterdam 1719, p. 90: ‘een Italiaansche Markt, met veel gewoel van beelden, en voor aan een vrouwtje dat uitstalt met verscheide soort van doode Vogels’ (an Italian market with a great bustle of figures, and at the front a little woman setting our her stall with a variety of dead birds). In addition, Schneeman queried the latter work’s authenticity.²⁷²⁷L.T. Schneeman, Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh: A Painter of Rotterdam, diss., The Pennsylvania State University 1982, pp. 268-69, no. F. 18; L.T. Schneeman, ‘Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh as Painter of Market Scenes’, in R.E. Fleischer and S. Scott Munshower (eds.), The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Penn State University Park 1988, pp. 169-75, esp. p. 175, note 24, suggests a painting with the same distinguishing features in sale, London (Sotheby’s), 21 April 1982, no. 21, as a possible companion piece for the market in Basel.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2026

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

L.T. Schneeman, Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh: A Painter of Rotterdam, diss., The Pennsylvania State University 1982, pp. 130, 132, 214-15, no. 45; L.T. Schneeman, ‘Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh as Painter of Market Scenes’, in R.E. Fleischer and S. Scott Munshower (eds.), The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Penn State University Park 1988, pp. 169-75, esp. pp. 170-71; De Jongh in L.M. Helmus (ed.), Vis: Stillevens van Hollandse en Vlaamse meesters 1550-1700, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum)/Helsinki (Amos Anderson Art Museum) 2004, p. 343, no. 60

1885, p. 101, no. 140; 1887, p. 160, no. 1349; 1903, p. 249, no. 2216; 1934, p. 265, no. 2216; 1976, p. 517, no. C 227

Gerdien Wuestman, 2026, 'Hendrick Martensz Sorgh, A Fish Market, c. 1649 - c. 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20015864