A Group of Figures at Crossbow Practice

Jan Josef Horemans the Elder (1682-1752)

Oil on canvas

21 ½ x 18 ¾ inches; 55 x 48 cm

Inscriptions:

Signed lower centre 'J Horemans'

Jan Josef Horemans was a leading Dutch genre painter of the seventeenth century. His small figurative canvases of everyday life were highly prized, and can today be found in museums across Europe. His son, Jan Josef the Younger, followed in his footsteps, and the father and son are known as Horemans ‘Le Sombre’ and Horemans ‘Le Clair’ respectively on account of their different approach to colouring.

Horemans the Elder is best known for anecdotal pictures such as this example, which, unusually, shows a group of men with crossbows. The men are members of a Dutch ‘schutterijn’, or militia, and carry with them the intricately rendered equipment needed to string their bows. They are attending crossbow practice, and behind them we can see the stands, or lanes, for each individual shooter. The central man in the foreground stands in front of a target board. The bows depicted are of a type used in Holland throughout the 18th Century, and were commonly known as ‘voetboogs’, or footbows. The man on the right is holding an English windlass, used to wind the bow strings.