The famous shoemaker. De Vermaarde Schoenmaaker.

Like his famous teacher, Adriaen van Ostade, Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704) specialised in depicting the everyday life of the Dutch lower class. It was only after Van Ostade's death that Dusart developed his own, more refined style.

Dusart was born in Haarlem in 1660, the son of a church organist. In his late teens, he studied painting with Van Ostade, and his earliest works relied heavily on his teacher's compositions. After Van Ostade's death in 1685, Dusart took over the contents of the studio and owned both Adriaen's works and those of Van Ostade's brother, Isack. Dusart reworked and sold many of their drawings, and in the process assimilated their styles and subjects. He also completed or adapted oil paintings by Jan Steen, whose style inspired him to develop figures with exaggerated expressions, gestures, and clothing.

Dusart's depictions of peasants drinking and carousing were probably not intended as moral lessons about vice, but rather, served as a form of comedy. The satirical side of Dusart's art reflected popular theatre, and his published prints had an impact on Dutch caricature. By the time of his death in 1704, Dusart had acquired a remarkable collection by the Italian and Dutch artists who most inspired him.

The title of this print, elegantly inscribed below the image, translates from the Dutch as 'The famous shoemaker' and it has been admirably analysed by the art historian Professor Linda Stone-Ferrier. The shoemaker - seated on the left and holding his awl - appears to be operating a busy, successful shop. And there's no doubt that he, the inelegant, heavy-set woman who dominates the centre, and the crouching assistant on the right fitting her shoe - are all having a great time. The woman looks out at the viewer, while she points in the direction of an upside-down funnel which hangs above the crouching man, whose significance is examined below.  The woman's coarseness is emphasised by her splayed legs, her robust decolletage and the folds of her cap which resemble the ears of an ass. The mood of the three figures contrasts with the two workers labouring quietly in the background. While one man works on a shoe, another climbs the ladder to place more finished shoes on a rack. Various tools are scattered about the floor and in the cupboard.

Although the depiction of shoemakers or cobblers was by no means uncommon in Dutch 17th century genre painting and printmaking, usually they were rendered more seriously, suggesting the dignity of labour. Here, Dusart offers a comic view - the figures are like popular theatre characters. The exaggerated gestures, contorted faces and costume of the crouching man confirm this. His figures were probably derived from stock type found in Dutch popular theatre - so-called rederijker plays. In late 17th century French commedia dell'arte, there was a character known as the dancing cobbler, who had a large nose and a pointed chin, laden down with shoes and pieces of leather as he dances on his toes. Surely Dusart's two cobblers are his relations.

As for the woman, her foot being placed in a sock or shoe, especially aided by a man, was a metaphor for sexual relations in Dutch art and language. The assistant's sly grin says as much. Is she the biggest fool of the three, as the ass's ears imply?  Not necessarily - the funnel to which she points was a symbol of foolishness if worn on the head because the it is unable to retain anything. The form is definitely echoed in the assistant's hat. Thus Dusart's print is an exploration of the comic possibilities related to all parties who fool and are fooled. 

The artist's signature with the usual 'invenit' and 'fecit', showing that it was very much his own work, is wittily inscribed on a piece of shoe leather.

Sources :

J. Paul Getty Museum, 'Cornelis Dusart', http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/19079/dusart-dutch-1660-1704/

Linda Stone-Ferrier, Dutch Pirnts of Daily Life: Mirrors of Life or Masks of Morals? (Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, 1983), pp. 89-91.

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art    April 2019