Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade Haarlem 1610 - 1685

Max Wasserman, Paris, bears his wax seal on the reverse of each;
Confiscated by the Devisenschutzkommando, Paris 5 April 1941;
Georges Ryaux;
His sale, Paris, 24 October 1979, lot 94;
With Richard Green, London, from whom bought by the present owner.

Note: these pictures are sold with the benefit of a settlement agreement with the heirs of Max Wasserman which ensures that full legal title will pass to the purchaser.

Each of this little pair of pictures shows peasants gathered at the door of a cottage, with the woman of the house leaning on a half-door.  Ostade painted, drew and etched such subjects on many occasions from the late 1640s until around 1680.  Each type of cottage front - both with windows and a vine to the left and a lean-to roof, one with an arched light above it, one with a rectangular embrasure sheltered by the roof - is found frequently.  Ostade's preference for this subject is so marked that it is tempting to attribute motives to him.  While there is much evidence that such a subject would naturally have been read in Ostade's own day as a hymn to domesticity, one must not forget that the men are engaged in idle, if not dissolute activities of smoking and drinking.  Nonetheless, in this and many similar works by Ostade, there is scant evidence of anything admonitory or obviously moralizing; instead there is an abiding peaceful air of acceptance.  It is the artless charm of cabinet pictures such as this, as well as their extraordinarily high quality, that made them so popular with collectors in 18th-century France, and subsequently.

The date on the first picture has traditionally been read as 1657, although this pair of pictures have more in common with Ostade's work of the later 1660s and 1670s.  The third digit could be read as a 5, 6 or 7.

These pictures will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Adriaen van Ostade's works being prepared by Dr. Hiltraud Doll.