Adriaen van Ostade

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby’s, 27 April 2016, lot 818 (as circle of Adriaen van Ostade);

Anonymous sale, London, Bonhams, 2 November 2016, lot 29 (as circle of Adriaen van Ostade);

Private collection, Netherlands;

From whom acquired by the present owner. 

These two hitherto unpublished roundels by Adriaen van Ostade are important recent additions to the master’s oeuvre. Each dated 1637, they are early works which bear strong influence from Adriaen Brouwer, who may have been Ostade's principal teacher. Many similarly painted single figures by Ostade have been preserved. A comparable pair, dated 1642, is in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. 1635-36). The present pair of roundels appears to be the earliest dated known example of such character heads.

Van Ostade here hints at the tulip mania which held the Dutch Republic firmly in its grip in the year he executed these panels. The title of the song on the sheet the man is holding reads: ‘eniew liedeken [a new song] / … / FLORISTEN OFT [florists or] / …’. In the aftermath of the Tulip crash of 1637, which began in Ostade’s hometown Haarlem, songs began to appear mockingly accusing botanists of the misery they had caused due to rampant speculation on tulip bulbs, and the eventual crash of the market, causing the financial ruin of many who participated. These paintings are, perhaps, a not so subtle allusion to the perils of unchecked market speculation. 

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Ostade, based on previous first hand inspection.