Genre Art

Genre Art is the collective term for paintings that depict scenes of everyday life. Unlike Portraiture or History Painting, Genre Paintings usually feature a person or group of people who are not identified either individually or collectively and are performing relatively uninteresting, unremarkable activities set in domestic interiors or markets, streets, fairs and public events. Although, always realistic in style, they were occasionally imagined or romanticised versions of reality.

Genre Art was introduced and perfected by the Dutch in the 17th century by such painters as Bruegel, de Hooch and Vermeer. The image shows a section of ‘The Courtyard of a House in Delft’ by Pieter de Hooch.