Paulus Constantijn la Fargue

The sketches he made on site formed the source material on which he and his younger brothers Jacob Elias and Karel based their more elaborate paintings and drawings, sometimes after an interim of more than ten years.

His paintings which were relatively small in format and clearly influenced by seventeenth-century painters such as Jan van der Heyden are somewhat static, though his more spontaneous drawings show greater originality.

La Fargue's depictions are fairly reliable in a topographical sense, lively in colour and filled with charming little figures that create variety.

Even though this artist could count such people as the French and English ambassadors among his patrons at the beginning of his career, his life was not easy, and he, and his brothers and sister were continually troubled by financial problems.

La Fargue who belongs to the group of better topographical artists of the second half of the eighteenth century, nevertheless derives his significance chiefly from the documentary value of his work.