Contact gallery for price		Pieter Angellis Dunkirk 1685 - 1734 Rennes A Boor Smoking and Drinking A Lady Selling Cabbage Oil on panel 6 1/2 x 6 inches (16.5 x 16 cm) each Inscribed and dated on the reverse: P.Angellis/1727 and : P.Angellis/1726 Pieter Angellis was a Flemish painter primarily active in England.  His style is similar to that of David Teniers the younger, by whom he was certainly influenced.  He was listed as a Master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1715-16.  He later traveled to London, where he lived until 1728.  His years in England were the most active of his career: his market scenes, still lifes, portraits, and conversation pieces were popular with his English aristocratic patrons.  His later work retained the narrative vigor reminiscent of Teniers the Younger combined with the elegance of Watteau.  Our two paintings are realistic genre paintings displayed in contrast to one another.  The earlier painting, A Lady Selling a Cabbage, depicts a charming young woman who proudly displays a large head of red cabbage on a table against a neutral, earthen toned background.  Her upswept blond hair frames her innocent, eager face above her peasant costume of a pink bodice tied over a loose white shirt.  The composition is simple, but elegant.  Her body creates a vertical axis, while her bent arm creates a diagonal in the foreground as she slightly leans over the cabbage. A Boor Drinking and Smoking portrays an older man, his ruddy face rendered in heavy impasto, who also leans over a table, but to examine his drink.  He wears a dark, rumpled coat and an askew velvet cap with a jaunty feather. His gray hair tumbles from his cap over his shiny forehead.  His eyes greedily survey his glass, which his fingers curl about protectively.  With his left hand, he reaches for an earthenware jug that contains his drink.  Smoke rises from burning tobacco in the ashtray set before him, while his pipe and other implements are spread out on the table.  His bent forearm echoes that of the young lady in the earlier portrait, but is closer to his body. While the two paintings are somewhat similar stylistically, they differ vastly in subject.  The vendor is portrayed as a hard-working, fresh-faced young woman, while the boor is a hunch, bloated drunkard who cares only for pleasure.  By contrasting these two images, the artist seems to invite the viewer to decide which is the reputable path.