Contact gallery for price		Willem Gillisz. Kool 1608 - Haarlem - 1666 Market Scene at the Beach Oil on panel 12 x 17 3/4 inches Willem Kool was a Haarlem artist of beach and landscape views, reminiscent and in the style of Jan van Goyen with a brownish or monochrome tonality, as well as due to the assurance with which the staffage is introduced. Kool displays excellent aerial perspective and for this reason at times includes prominent buildings in the composition. Our painting is a charming quayside scene of peasants gathering with their goods to sell to the gentry on horseback, offering a lively market scene set against the ocean. The composition is filled with interesting figures, fishing boats,and animals, creating never ending visual stimulation. The figures, boats and various merchandise occupy the landscape in a colorful array of activity: merchants offer fish and produce from large baskets while customers make their to examine the arriving goods. Our artist communicates the spontaneity and energy of a Dutch marketplace, filling his composition with rich details of such a scene. Despite the slightly chaotic feel of the scene, the painting is nonetheless carefully structured, organized to guide the viewer’s focus and create a dramatic sense of depth within the painting. Kool strategically positions the figures and objects so that the viewer’s eye may move easily around the space, focussing on the central scene and then beyond to the ships, cottages and seascape in the distance. The interaction between the viewer and the elements of the painting inspires a lively experience. Our picture thus ultimately serves as a lyrical narrative about the people and places of this Dutch seaside marketplace.