Frans Verbeeck

The art historian Paul Vandenbroeck proposed in 1981 that the works created in the workshop should be attributed to the 'Verbeeck group', due to the close proximity in composition, style and iconographic language applied.

Vandenbroeck felt it was impossible and meaningless to attempt to distinguish between individual family members such as Frans and Jan Verbeeck and attribute these paintings to one or the other artist.

The composition The Mocking of Human Follies (Auctioned at Dorotheum, 21 October 2014, lot 33) was listed in 2003 in the catalogue of exhibition 'De Zotte Schilders' ('The Mad Painters') as a painting by Frans Verbeeck, with the addition 'de Oude', which translates to 'the Elder'.

[5] Frans Verbeeck is known for his depictions of peasant weddings and similar subject matter dealing with satirical and moralistic themes, inspired by Hieronymus Bosch and by the plays performed in the local chambers of rhetoric.

[1] The subjects of peasant weddings and human follies aimed to criticise in a funny and absurd manner the foolish, animal-like behaviour of man led by lust, desire and impulse.

[4] The motivation behind, or key to deciphering, many of the allusive, rebuslike details of the compositions in the Verbeeck group can be traced to the satirical texts of the chambers of rhetoric, whose members loved elegantly poking fun at human vices and folly.

[4] The Verbeeck family had developed and maintained an individual style with a unique and rich iconography that can be distinguished from the two great Flemish masters of the fantastic and bizarre Hieronymous Bosch and Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

The Verbeeck family's world of imagery with its strangeness and sometimes bizarre, caricature-like characteristics offers a very personal vision of the human race inspired by Flemish folklore.