Artwork
The Poultryman
The Poultryman is an unspecified painting by the Biedermeier artist Ignace Brice. It dates from 1827 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. The work depicts a quiet street corner where a man in a brown coat offers a white pigeon to a young woman carrying a basket of vegetables.
About this work
Overview
The work depicts a quiet street corner where a man in a brown coat offers a white pigeon to a young woman carrying a basket of vegetables. Behind them, a curved lane is lined with brick façades and a leafless tree, suggesting a modest, everyday setting rather than a grand narrative.
Subject & Meaning
The interaction centers on a simple commercial exchange: the poultry seller attempts to persuade the woman to purchase the bird. The juxtaposition of the pigeon—a symbol of domestic life—and the vegetable basket highlights ordinary market activities in a small town.
Technique & Style
Rendered in the early nineteenth‑century genre tradition, the painting employs muted earth tones and careful attention to detail. The figures are outlined with modest brushwork, while the background architecture is suggested rather than fully resolved, creating a sense of immediacy.
History & Provenance
The artist remains unidentified, a common circumstance for many genre works of the period. Produced in the early 1800s, the piece belongs to a broader series of street‑scene paintings that document daily life rather than historic events, reflecting contemporary interests in the quotidian.
Artist & collection
Artist
Ignace Brice (2 April 1795–10 August 1866) was a neoclassical painter of genre, portraits and religious scenes from Brussels.
The Poultry Sellers
Woman Selling Vegetables
The Greengrocer's Shop De Buyskool
Rustic interior: figures of an old man and woman and a girl
Tavern Scene with Standing Couple
En tjenestepige viser sin kærestes portræt til en grønthandlerske
The greengrocer at the sign of 'De Buyscool'
Interior of an Inn, with Figures in Seventeenth-Century Costume
A Betrothal Scene. Interior with Dutch peasants
Vegetable market