Verburgh, Rutger, Rotterdam 1678 - c. 1746, Village feast with riders pulling geese. Oil/pastel/cardboard/pastel, From a private collection in the Rhineland, acquired at the Munich Art Fair in the 1980s. With an expert opinion by Walther Bernt, Munich 1978. Boisterous dancing, merry carousing and competitive games such as the widespread "goose pulling" were part of a Flemish peasant fair and had been a popular subject of Dutch painting since Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The activities and behaviour of the country folk were already very different from the way of life of the townspeople in the 16th and 17th centuries. The latter appreciated pictures in which the farmers' closeness to nature and apparent carelessness were depicted in rich detail and divided into zones of light and shadow. 60 x 81.5 cm

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