L12034

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Lot 136
  • 136

Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade

Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Adriaen jansz. van Ostade
  • An interior with two boors and a woman conversing, smoking and drinking at a table
  • oil on oak panel

Provenance

Jäger collection;
Baroness Aug. Stummer von Tavornok, Vienna, 1895 catalogue, no. 138 (according to Hofstede, see Literature);
Bruno Jellinek, Vienna, whose collection was secured by the Nazi authorities, 17 June 1938, and confiscated, 8 January 1941, by the Vugesta (the Gestapo looting agency) and offered for sale: Vienna, Dorotheum, 2 December 1941, lot 106;
Acquired at the above sale by the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. 9038;
Restituted to the heirs of Bruno Jellinek, January 2008.

Literature

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. III, London 1910, p. 249, no. 359 (as 16½ x 14 in.: 'In the centre of a room there sit round a cask an old peasant on the left, a young girl on the right, and between them a young peasant lighting his pipe at a charcoal pan. The girl holds a beer-glass in her right hand and a stoneware jug in her left. The older peasant holds his soft dark hat with both hands in fron tof him. To the left lies a light-brown dog.');
K. Demus, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, Holländische Meister des 15., 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Vienna 1972, p. 71;
Die Gemäldegalerie des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien, Vienna 1991, p. 91, reproduced plate 518 (where said to be signed upper right on the rafter AVO).

Condition

The support consists of a single flat oak panel with no apparent damages or splits, and that is not cradled. Overall the paint surface is well preserved though there are several distinct areas affected by collections of small retouchings. These are along the upper margin, on the upper half of the central figure and in the background to his right. There is another area in the centre right background. On the two foremost figures there are some minor, now discoloured, retouchings, though these are few. The painting would benefit from cleaning and revarnishing though overall is in good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

This scene of domestic tranquillity is at odds with Ostade's earlier violent tavern brawl images or scenes of solitary boors drinking. The painting dates to the 1650s, a time when Ostade was very much still interested in the idiosyncratic portrayal of peasant life. Though his focus has shifted from the satirising human frailty that defined his works of the 1640s, to one eulogising the simplicity of peasant life.

Here three peasants are grouped around a table, and whilst the old woman grasps a beer jug there is none of the raucous noise, movement and drunken revelry to be found in his compositions from the previous decades.  The three figures are quietly talking around the table and a dog is fast asleep on the floor beyond, a detail it is impossible to imagine in Ostade's earlier compositions. Even the interior itself bespeaks tranquillity and rest, with a small, carefully defined space behind the protagonists housing a bed with its curtain drawn back. 

Ostade's restrained use of colour and his description of the space adds to the prevailing sense of calm in this image. Touches of colour are confined to the figure group but even here the highlights are relatively muted, a mustard yellow sleeve, a glimpse of a red undergarment and the pure white of the woman's shirt and bonnet.  These touches of colour anchor the composition in the figure group which emerges from the more muted but carefully described tones used throughout the background.  Ostade's masterful treatment of the subtle tones of light in a dark peasant interior thus define this painting, its structure achieved through the use of  strong horizontals and diagonals in the fabric of the building itself. We are grateful to Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.

PROVENANCE
From 1941, after its confiscation by the Vugesta, this painting was in the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In 2008 is was finally restituted to the heirs of Bruno Jellinek whose collection had been secured by the Nazis as early as 1938. In the 1972 Kunsthistorisches catalogue the painting is said to have been signed with initials (AVO) on a beam in the upper right corner.