Joos van Craesbeeck

Who was Joos van Craesbeeck?

'Joos van Craesbeeck' was a Flemish painter who specialized in tavern interiors, tronies, and other works similar to his teacher Adriaen Brouwer. Born in Neerlinter, he became a master in Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke in 1633–1634, and like his contemporaries David Teniers the Elder and David Ryckaert III he developed rustic genre scenes. He subsequently moved to Brussels, where he joined that city's painters' guild in 1651.

Paintings such as Death is Violent and Fast are typical of his small, theatrical images of peasants brawling crowded with violent expressive figures. Unlike Teniers, whose style became more elegant, Craesbeeck continued to paint bawdy figures later in his career.