Adriaen van Ostade

Joan Hendrick van Heemskerk;
His sale, The Hague, Rietmulder, 29 March 1770, lot 90, for 205 florins to Beschey.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the most Eminent Dutch Painters of the 17th Century, vol. III, London 1910, pp. 249-50, no. 363.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine bevelled oak panel in one piece, which is perfectly flat with no sign of movement past or present. The varnish is rather cloudy in the darks, and there are a few little old retouchings, but the underlying condition is good. There are a few signs of wear: some in the floor in the lower left foreground and in the lighter patch of floor at mid right, some thinness in the bodice of the woman, and in occasional small places such as the beard of the standing man. The shadow of his hat over the left of his forehead has a small retouching, as has the left corner of the woman's mouth, with a touch on her eyebrow and in the background around her profile, as well as in some shadows of the folds of her skirt and in her bodice, and also on the brim of the seated man's hat. There are other small touches on the table base, a patch in the bowl high up behind on the wall and various small superficial touches in the background and in the left foreground. However the general condition is in fact rather finely intact overall. The view through the window is completely untouched and the general soft focus and delicate brushwork is beautifully preserved for instance in the red drapery of the woman, the background and the small touches building up the character of the figures. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Ostade was born in Haarlem in 1610, the son of the weaver Jan Hendricsz. van Ostade who came from the town of Ostade near Eindhoven. He probably studied with Frans Hals, alongside other leading members of the Haarlem school of genre painting, namely Adriaen Brouwer and Jan Miense Molenaer. By 1634 he was a member of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke, an institution in which he was to be granted the highest honours, being elected hoofdman (leader) in 1647 and 1661, and later deken (dean) in 1662.

The intimacy of the present scene with the three boors gently illuminated from the stable door to the left of the composition, and the very subtle earthy palette only interrupted by the warm reds and blue tones, would point to a probable dating to the 1650s. Gone are the more vibrant caricatures of his youthful barn interiors of the 1630s and early 1640s where the boors are shown fighting, vomiting and cavorting; instead this work presents the life of a peasant in all its coarseness but with an epic sense of poetry where realism rather than condescension is prized. It is for this type of picture that Ostade is justly considered one of the leading genre painters in Holland during the 17th century. The stark composition and greater monumentality of the figures and sobriety of subject matter is also typical of the works from the 1650s, works where the composition is presented with a sensitive air of melancholy rather than comedy. This eschewal of the debauchery and ribaldry of the scenes of his youth may be a reflection of the personal tragedy of the death of his first wife Machtelje Pietersdr in 1642.

The attribution to Ostade has been endorsed by Frau. Dr. Hiltraud Doll following first hand inspection, to whom we are grateful.