Attributed to Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade Haarlem 1610 - 1685

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Description

Adriaen jansz. van Ostade
An interior with peasants huddled around a cask, smoking and drinking
oil on oak panel

Provenance

Richard William Penn, 3rd Earl Howe (1822-1900), Gopsall Atherstone, 1884, and then Penn House, Buckinghamshire;
Thence by descent to Richard George Penn, 4th Earl Howe (1861-1929);
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 7 December 1933, lot 47, for £220.10.0 to Healter.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, 1884, no. 138, as by Ostade (lent by Earl Howe).

Literature

C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné..., vol. III, London 1910, p. 333, no. 635 (incorrectly described as containing six figures).

Catalogue Note

This is one of two known versions of this composition ascribed to Ostade. That they have not been linked before is no doubt due to Hofstede de Groot's uncharacteristic error in counting six figures in this version. The other painting, also on panel, measuring 32.5 by 29 cm., and reputedly signed in the lower left corner, passed through the collections of Max Wassermann and the Baron de Bernonville in Paris, and was sold New York, Christie's, 15 January 1986, lot 153. The ex-De Bernonville painting is now generally believed to be a good copy, and no other version of the composition is known which has claim to be the prime original.

On the basis of photographs Dr. Bernard Schnackenburg supports an attribution to Adriaen van Ostade for this picture (letter dated 21 November 2005). He suggests a dating of around 1645 for the present work by comparison with Ostade's larger Barn scene with dancing figures of the same year formerly with P. de Boer, Amsterdam (reproduced in B. Schnackenburg, Adriaen van Ostade. Isack van Ostade. Zeichnungen und Aquarelle,. Hamburg 1981, vol. I, p. 261, fig. 30).