Kirmes [St George's Kirmes with dancing around the maypole (?)]

Based on the choice of subject, the painting in federal possession could be a ‘St George's Kirmes with dancing around the maypole’. In the centre, an exuberant peasant society dances around a tall, slender tree and celebrates the end of winter and Lent. To the left of these merry goings-on, peasants are sitting at a table for a meal. The village is shown in the centre background, with various groups in action; the village church is on the far left. In the distance there is a view of a wide landscape with a high sky. As in numerous other paintings of this motif by Pieter the Younger, the left side of the composition is bordered by one of the typical trees at full height. Many of the scenes shown here are familiar from other paintings by the painter, which he repeatedly changed and remodelled in his pictures. This play with forms and motifs is one of Pieter the Younger's most important stylistic devices.

The surviving knowledge of depictions of a ‘St George's Kirmes with Dance around the Maypole’ is given by Ertz as 16 paintings. The work in federal possession is not mentioned in the catalogue raisonné either under this motif or under a similar fairground motif. Only one of these 16 paintings is dated 1626. As no further details are known for the painting of interest here, the date of origin can only be roughly limited to the first third of the 17th century.