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Cornelis Bega was the son of the goldsmith Pieter Jansz. Begijn (or Begga) and Maria Cornelisdr., daughter of the wealthy Mannerist painter Cornelis van Haarlem (1562-1638). According to Houbraken, Bega was the first and best pupil of Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685). He may have travelled to Italy as a young man: a drawing tentatively attributed to him is inscribed Bega Romae (The dentist, Schlossmuseum Weimar, inv. no.4763). Bega certainly travelled to Germany and Switzerland in 1653, in the company of the artists Vincent van der Vinne, Theodor Helmbreker and Willem de Bois. By June 1653 he had returned to Haarlem, where he entered the painters’ guild in 1654. He died of the plague in Haarlem in 1664 and was given a costly funeral in St Bavo’s. Houbraken wrote in his Groote Schouburgh: "By some chance I heard that he was in love with a young woman, whose side he would not leave when she caught the plague, despite the forceful attempts of his mother and the Healers who warned him not to come too near her bed. During the last moments of her life he became distraught and wanted to kiss her farewell. Thus occupied he took a stick from a mop, pointed it towards her, she kissing one end and he the other. Still he was also contaminated and followed her shortly afterwards the same way, in the prime of his life."

Bega’s early paintings are peasant scenes in the style of Adriaen van Ostade. After circa 1660 he began to make genre scenes with fewer figures, which are finely painted, colourful and psychologically expressive. Bega’s work influenced Thomas Wijck, Jan Steen and Richard Brakenburg.

The work of Cornelis Bega is represented in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Berlin; the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; the National Gallery, London; the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

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