# The Kermis at the Half Moon Inn \(detail\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TENIERS, David the Younger]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas ## Commentary At the left of the action, albeit as non-participant observers, we see a group of distinguished and elaborately dressed townsfolk. Arranged almost as if in a group portrait, and with a stiff and measured air, they form the greatest conceivable contrast to the lively dancing farmers to their right. A potentially explosive attempt is being made to establish contact between the two groups: a farmer has taken a lady by the hand and invited her to dance, but he encounters resistance. His aim is to draw her from her safe position of observer into the actual swing of the kermis. The farmer's wife, suckling her child, watches suspiciously from a distance. This group of townsfolk can be interpreted as a reflexive break in the representation. Also worthy of mention is the depiction within the painting of farming implements, arranged by the fence like a still-life; this device is often to be found in Teniers's work and reveals his artistic self-confidence. Not content with specialising in a single genre, he demands rather the special recognition of the connoisseur. ## Related artworks - [A Barn Interior]() - [A Cobbler in his Workshop]() - [A View of Het Sterckshof near Antwerp]() - [Apes in the Kitchen]() - [Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery]() - [Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in his Gallery]() - [Before the Inn]() - [Card Players]() - [Country Kermis]() - [Countryside Inn with Revellers \(detail\)]() - [Countryside Inn with Revellers]() - [Dulle Griet \(Mad Meg\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()