Artist: Adriaen van de Venne (circa 1589–1662)
Title: A Merry Company in an Arbor
Date 1615
Medium: oil on panel
Dimensions: height: 164 mm (6.45 in); width: 230 mm (9.05 in)
Collection: Getty Center
What I love about this painting:
Good heavens, where should I start? This is now my second favorite Dutch Renaissance painting ever. (Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s Hunters in the Snow is my favorite). Adriaen van de Venne is now in the top five of my favorite artists simply because of his unrepentantly Dutch sense of humor. I want to be Dutch when I grow up!
So, let’s have a look at the story Adriaen is telling us. The action is happening in the left foreground. Everyone loves a good kegger … I mean … picnic in the woods, especially after being cooped up all winter. We get dressed in some nice summer finery and everyone brings food, and the hosts provide the drinks.
Of course, the uncles all get a bit deep into the free beer and suddenly a tree climbing contest is on. Unfortunately, Cousin Dirck loses the battle with gravity, as does Uncle Hans. Aunt Irma barely dodges her plummeting spouse, and Cousin Aart yells at Dirck to get up and stop acting like a fool. Cousin Berthe, Dirk’s new bride, is mortified, as she has only just met her spouse’s extended family and had hoped to make a better impression.
Everyone else pretends nothing happened, business as usual. It’s the way family gatherings are, with noisy well-fed people having a good time.
Other groups picnicking in the forest and meadow pretend not to hear the ruckus, but a few nosy neighbors gawk. The gossip will hit the streets before sundown, but other than that, it’s a fine day for a frolic in the forest, one that the Brueghels would have enjoyed.
Humor aside, this is a wonderful, well-executed painting. Adriaen van de Venne has captured one of the most hilarious family get-togethers ever.
About the artist, vis Wikipedia:
Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne (1589 – 12 November 1662), was a versatile Dutch Golden Age painter of allegories, genre subjects, and portraits, as well as a miniaturist, book illustrator, designer of political satires, and versifier.
Van de Venne was born in Delft. According to Houbraken he learned Latin in Leiden. He learned to paint from the master goldsmith and painter Simon de Valk, and afterwards learned engraving from Jeronimus van Diest, a good painter of grisailles. He then moved to Middelburg in 1614 where he was influenced by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Elder. [1]
To read more about this artist, go to Adriaen van de Venne – Wikipedia.
Credits and Attributions
IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Adriaen van de Venne (Dutch – A Merry Company in an Arbor – Google Art Project.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Adriaen_van_de_Venne_(Dutch_-_A_Merry_Company_in_an_Arbor_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg&oldid=1034439061 (accessed February 12, 2026).
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Adriaen van de Venne,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adriaen_van_de_Venne&oldid=1330070271 (accessed February 12, 2026).
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 