Dutch school of the first half of the 19th century

Dutch school of the first half of the 19th century.
"Character in the Stable", 1840.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated "H. Maiben" in the lower left corner.
Gilt frame with some flaws. Small faults in the painting.
Measurements: 30 x 26 cm; 48 x 43 cm (frame) .

Undoubtedly, it was in the painting of the Dutch school where the consequences of the political emancipation of the region, as well as the economic prosperity of the liberal bourgeoisie, were most openly manifested. The combination of the discovery of nature, objective observation, the study of the concrete, the appreciation of the everyday, the taste for the real and material, the sensitivity to the seemingly insignificant, made the Dutch artist commune with the reality of everyday life, without seeking any ideal alien to that same reality. The painter did not seek to transcend the present and the materiality of objective nature or to escape from tangible reality, but to envelop himself in it, to become intoxicated by it through the triumph of realism, a realism of pure illusory fiction, achieved thanks to a perfect and masterful technique and a conceptual subtlety in the lyrical treatment of light. Because of the break with Rome and the iconoclastic tendency of the Reformed Church, paintings with religious themes were eventually eliminated as a decorative complement with a devotional purpose, and mythological stories lost their heroic and sensual tone, in accordance with the new society. Thus portraits, landscapes and animals, still life and genre painting were the thematic formulas that became valuable in their own right and, as objects of domestic furniture - hence the small size of the paintings - were acquired by individuals of almost all classes and social classes.During the seventeenth century various influences, mainly thematic, arrived in Holland from Flanders. Within the Flemish school there was at this time a great specialization of the painters, focused on still life, architecture, genre paintings, etc. Within this last thematic range, the tavern scenes, represented by Adriaen Brouwer and David Teniers the Younger, both from the first half of the 17th century, were especially outstanding. The success of this type of scene struck a chord with the Dutch Baroque school, dominated by the figures of Rembrandt and Hals. Dutch painters such as Vermeer or Pieter de Hooch focused on genre subjects, but mainly depicted scenes of the intimacy of the upper classes. On the other hand, certain authors looked to the works of Brouwer and Teniers to establish a different genre, taking the village as their model. With the passage of time, the genre evolved independently in Holland, moving away from the dark settings, with warm and limited chromatism, typical of Flanders. Thus, in this work, already from the beginning of the 18th century, in the dimly lit environment, a foreground stands out illuminated by a clear light, which draws silver sparkles from the objects placed around the table, arranged as if it were a still life, and captured with the same attention to detail and the representation of the qualities.