Waardin en gezelschap in herberg 1642 - 1664

Cornelis Bega created this print called "Waardin en gezelschap in herberg" somewhere in the mid-seventeenth century in the Netherlands. It depicts a tavern scene of people drinking and talking and it gives us insight into the social lives of ordinary Dutch people in that era. Prints like these were often made to be sold to middle-class audiences to decorate their homes. Tavern scenes in particular, with their depictions of everyday life, became popular during this time. The cultural context of the Dutch Golden Age, with its rising merchant class and focus on realism in art, certainly influenced Bega's choice of subject matter and style. To truly understand the imagery, we need to remember the role of the artist and the institutions that shaped them. Bega was part of a lineage of Dutch painters who focused on genre scenes. Studying period documents, such as inventories of households, can help us understand who purchased them and what purpose they served. The history of art is inseparable from social and institutional histories.