Adriaen van Ostade Haarlem 1610-1685

M. Schamp D'Aveschoot by 1840;
His sale, Ghent, September 14, 1840, pp. 27-28, lot 58 (as "Scène d'Interieur") for 6,700 francs and 7 1/2 per cent. (291l.)¹ to M. Tencé;²
Tencé, Lille;
Isaac Péreire (1800-1880) Paris;
Isaac Péreire, Paris, Pillet & Petit, March 6, 1872, lot 142 for 8,000 francs;
Baron de Beurnonville, Paris;
Lippmann von Lissingen of Vienna, Paris, March, 16, 1876, lot 33;
Baronne de Hirsch, Paris, June 17, 1904 lot 35;
Ridder Collection;
Ridder Collection Sale, Paris, June 2, 1924.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century based on the work of John Smith, vol. III, London 1910, pp. 375-376, under no. 762 as "Peasants at an Inn" or "A Social Party;"
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. I, London 1829, p. 157, under no. 184 as "etched by Ostade";
J. Smith, A Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. IX, London 1842, p. 85, under no. 20 as "A Social Party;"
E. Trautscholdt, "Notes on Adriaen van Ostade," Burlington Magazine, vol. liv, February 1929, p. 79;
L. Godefroy, The Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade, San Francisco 1990, p. 159, under no. 50 as "a variant in oils in reverse" of the twelve state of Ostade's etching, 'The Breakfast;'
L.J. Slatkes in Everyday Life in Holland's Golden Age, the Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam 1998, p. 161, under no. 50, as "a good replica."

Members of a humble peasant family are seen consuming a hearty breakfast seated in a large cottage room.  The muted brown tonality peppered with highlights of warm reds and blues, dates the picture to the mature period of the artist’s career.  As Houbraken relates in his Groote Schouburgh, 1721, I, pp. 347/8, Van Ostade was trained under Frans Hals in Haarlem, probably as a fellow of Adriaen Brouwer.  The influence of Brouwer is evident in Van Ostade’s early years, but from 1640 onwards he developed his own idiom. 

The composition is repeated in reverse in one of Ostade’s most important etchings, and there is a lost drawing presumably conceived by Ostade for the etching design (see fig. 1). The drawing is signed lower right A.V.O. and is in the same direction as the painting.   Louis Godefroy (see Literature) suggests a date of 1664 for the etching.

We are grateful to Dr. Hiltraud Doll, who based on firsthand inspection of the picture, confirms the attribution, to Adriaen Ostade.   She will include this picture in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Adriaen and Isack van Ostade.

1  According to Smith, op.cit., p. 85, under no. 20.
2  Both Hofstede de Groot and Smith, op.cit., incorrectly spell Tencé as "Tansé."