Artwork
Horse Fair on the Maliebaan at The Hague

Horse Fair on the Maliebaan at The Hague is an oil painting by the Biedermeier artist Cornelis Albertus Johannes Schermer. It dates from 1858 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work portrays a horse fair set on the Maliebaan in The Hague, capturing a lively gathering of riders and onlookers beneath a canopy of trees.
The work portrays a horse fair set on the Maliebaan in The Hague, capturing a lively gathering of riders and onlookers beneath a canopy of trees. Schermer emphasizes the movement of horses and the interaction among participants, using the surrounding foliage as a symbolic backdrop that frames the social activity. The painting thus reflects 19th‑century Dutch urban leisure and the prominence of equestrian culture in the city’s public spaces.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard combination for mid-nineteenth-century Dutch easel painting. Its relatively modest dimensions, 65 cm in height by 96.5 cm in width, and horizontal orientation support a panoramic, landscape-style composition suited to depicting the horse fair and the trees lining the Maliebaan avenue.
History & Provenance
Horse Fair on the Maliebaan at The Hague is an oil painting by Cornelis Albertus Johannes Schermer, created in 1858. The work measures 65 cm in height and 96.5 cm in width, executed on canvas. It is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum under inventory number SK-A-1234.
The painting was owned by Reinhard, Baron van Lynden, and has been part of the Rijksmuseum's holdings since its acquisition. It was exhibited in the museum's 19th-century Dutch art gallery in 2015.
Context
Cornelis Albertus Johannes Schermer painted Horse Fair on the Maliebaan at The Hague in 1858, depicting a tree within a Dutch landscape setting. The work is housed in the Rijksmuseum collection, reflecting the artist's engagement with 19th-century Dutch painting traditions. Schermer's style and subject matter situate this canvas within the broader context of Romantic-era landscape art in the Netherlands, as evidenced by its inclusion in major institutional holdings like the Rijksmuseum.
Scholarship on Schermer's oeuvre emphasizes his contribution to Dutch Romanticism, particularly his atmospheric treatment of light and vegetation in urban and rural scenes.
Overview
Horse Fair on the Maliebaan at The Hague is an 1858 oil painting by Cornelis Albertus Johannes Schermer, held at the Rijksmuseum.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Cornelis Albertus Johannes Schermer
Cornelis Albertus Johannes Schermer (1824–1915) was an artist, born in The Hague.


















