Washington Irving’s depictions of life in New York in the 17th and 18th centuries share the sensibility of Dutch genre painting in the same period.  Dutch painters in this period, which is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Dutch painting because it is the age of such renown painters as Rembrandt and Vermeer, painted scenes of everyday life  called “genre paintings” in addition to portraits, landscapes, and mythological subjects.  Genre paintings are “droll”: they often humorously characterize and mock their subjects, exaggerating negative features and qualities in a way that is similar to what Irving does in many of his stories.  Below are examples of a couple a number of Dutch genre paintings that are quite could almost be scenes out of Knickerbocker’s History and  “Dolph Heylinger.”

“Rhetoricians at the Window,” Jan Steen circa 1665.

 

“The Doctor’s Visit,” Jan Steen circa 1665.