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PETER ANGELIS

AT THE MARKET

PETER ANGELIS
Dunkerque 1685 - 1734 Rennes

Oil on canvas
46 x 37 cm / 18.1 x 14.6 inches; with frame 61 x 52 cm / 24 x 20.5 inches

French painting of the late 17th and early 18th centuries represents one of the most fascinating processes of artistic transformation in the history of European art. During these decades, the heavy grandeur of the Baroque gradually gave way to lightness and elegance, a shift most vividly embodied in the work of Antoine Watteau. His paintings became a mirror of these changes, expressing the graceful transition from late Baroque to the emerging Rococo style.
Yet innovation was not limited to formal language alone. This period was marked by a radical reinterpretation of the legacy of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting. The tenderness and intimacy of Northern art were recast into the courtly, theatrical, and gallant aesthetics of French culture. It was against this backdrop that the art of Watteau’s contemporaries took shape — among them, Peter Angelis (Pierre Angillis, 1685–1734).
A native of Dunkirk, Angelis spent most of his life outside Flanders — in England, Italy, and France. His style was described by contemporaries as a synthesis of David Teniers’ traditions and Watteau’s refinement. A self-taught artist, he became renowned for his depictions of market and genre scenes, where documentary precision mingled with vivid colors and a touch of irony. His works were admired during his lifetime and continued to enjoy success well into the 19th century.
The painting At the Market from our gallery is a striking example of this synthesis. Before the viewer unfolds a lively genre scene with a rich still life of fish and seafood, set against the backdrop of a conversation among figures. The Flemish roots are evident — the attention to detail, the sense of abundance, the depiction of popular types, recalling the tradition of Teniers or Snyders. Yet the treatment is already different: the execution is imbued with the lightness of the 18th century, with its Rococo spirit perceptible in both color and manner. The ambiguity of the subject — a market scene that simultaneously reads as a theatrical staging with a barely concealed erotic undertone — ties this work to the culture of the gallant age, where art imitated life, and life itself became a stage.

Base: Canvas

Epoque: XVIII century

Epoque: XVII century

Genre: Genre painting

Genre: Still life

School: Flemish

School: British

School: French

Technic: Oil