Pieter Jansz. Quast was born in Amsterdam ca. 1605. It is not known who taught him, but his work was clearly influenced by the Flemish genre-scene painter Adriaen Brouwer and the French draughtsman and engraver Jacques Callot. In 1632 Quast married Anniette Splinters. Between 1634 and 1641 the couple lived in The Hague, where Quast became a member of the local guild of St Luke. In 1641 they went back to Amsterdam, where they remained until Quast’s death in 1647. He is known to have taught at least two pupils, Dirck Cornelisz. de Hooch and the genre-painter Jan Jansz. Buesem.

 

Pieter Quast painted mostly small-scale genre scenes, with subjects ranging from groups of peasants to elegant companies. The satirical and caricatured quality of his work is reminiscent of the work of his contemporary, Adriaen van de Venne, though Quast adopted a looser drawing style. Besides paintings, he also made finished drawings (i.e. not sketches), often on vellum. Though some of his work was engraved, it is unclear whether he did this himself. The “Series with two jesters” (Hollstein 57 – 68) is a clear example of how he was influenced by Callot, especially by his Commedia dell’ Arte figures.

 

The present work comes from an album containing 46 numbered drawings on vellum by Pieter Quast, all studies of actors, jesters and costumes. Some of these sheets were signed and dated (between 1638 and 1640), allowing us to firmly attribute this sheet to his hand. At some point, the album was taken apart and the sheets were scattered across various private and public collections. A sheet from the album depicting a Dancing Jester was sold by the gallery to the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in 2019.