In this painting of the Breda annual fair by Petrus van Schendel we see vendors and buyers among stalls with luxury goods and delicious treats. The tower of the Grote Kerk church and the houses on Grote Markt square are clearly recognisable. The girl on the left, caught in the light of an oil lamp, attracts our attention.
Van Schendel won international fame as a painter of romantic moonlit or candlelit market scenes. As a result, he was nicknamed Monsieur Chandelle, or ‘Mister Candlelight’. Van Schendel became one of the best-paid painters in the Netherlands. But he was also a mechanic and an inventor. He produced designs for improved steam-powered vehicles and railway carriages, for example.
Petrus van Schendel, Annual Fair on Grote Markt in Breda, 1863, oil on canvas, on loan from Friends of Stedelijk Museum Breda