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Esaias van de Velde was primarily a landscapist, who produced also a number of important genre paintings. His genre production consists chiefly of the elegant alfresco parties of the type popularised by the Flemish David Vinckboons — whose influence upon van de Velde is beyond dispute.
The picture shows Esaias van de Velde's earliest dated Garden Party, painted in 1614. Its setting owes much to Vinckboons's work, with its large arbour and splendid palace — a fantastic edifice with no equivalent in actual Dutch architecture of the period — looming in the distance. However, he has taken a highly conventional theme with century-old Flemish roots and introduced his own modifications into its representation.
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