The fortune teller.

Drawing, red chalk, 23,6 x 18,7 cm, laid paper with watermark (Fleur-de-lis de Strasbourg BM, similar to Heawood: 1794), unsigned (trimmed to the framing line, some brown spots, particularly at upper section).

Mounted on 19th-c. passe-partout (lower edge loosened).

A young horseman is having his palm read by a fortune teller, surrounded by a small group of onlookers. The particular genre scene of fortune tellers enjoyed great popularity at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with Flemish artists such as Jacob van Oost (1603-1671) and David II Teniers (1610-1690).