Isack van Ostade

Godard Desmarest Collection;
Lebeuf de Montgermont, Paris;
Dr. Max Wassermann, Paris;
With F. Kleinberger, Paris;
From whom acquired by August C. de Ridder (1837-1911), Villa Schönberg, Kronberg im Taunus (by 1910);
Estate of August de Ridder, sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 2 June 1924, lot 50 (Frcs. 92.000 to Lugt);
Probably F.J. Lugt (1884-1970), Maartensdijk;
Mrs. A. Nienhuys-Versteegh, Aerdenhout, by 1952 (see under Exhibited Delft 1952-3);
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Christie’s, 7 May 1996, lot 60;
David Koetser, 1996.

Frankfurt-am-Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, on loan from the De Ridder Collection,1911-1913 (Ausstellung der De Ridder Sammlung, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt-am-Main, no catalogue);
New York, F. Kleinberger Galleries, The Collection of Pictures of the late Herr A. de Ridder Formerly in his Villa at Schönberg near Cronberg in the Taunus, 24 November - 15 December 1913, no. 45 (catalogue by Dr. Wilhelm von Bode; see also under Literature 1913);
Amsterdam, Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker, Hollandsche winterlandschappen uit de 17e eeuw ten bate van het crisiscomité, 6 February – 29 February 1932, no. 69 (on loan from a private collection);
Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Nederlandse meesters uit particulier bezit (Kersttentoonstelling), 21 December 1952- 1 February 1953, no. 56;
New Orleans 1997, no. 37, reproduced;
Baltimore 1999, no. 36, reproduced.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. 3, London 1910, p. 533, cat. no. 287;
W. Bode, Die Gemäldegalerie des Herrn A. de Ridder in seiner Villa zu Schönberg bei Cronberg im Taunus, Berlin 1910, p. 34, reproduced;
W. Bode, Die Gemäldegalerie des Weiland Herrn A. de Ridder in seiner Villa zu Schönberg bei Cronberg im Taunus, Berlin 1913, cat. no. 45, reproduced;
W. von Bode, The Collection of Pictures of the late Herr A. de Ridder Formerly in his Villa at Schönberg near Cronberg in the Taunus, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1913, pp. 21 and 55, cat. no. 45;
Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, Nederlandse meesters uit particulier bezit (Kersttentoonstelling), 1952 - 1953, p. 28, cat. no. 56;
New Orleans 1997, pp. 91-93, cat. no. 37, reproduced;
Baltimore 1999, pp. 82-83, cat. no. 36, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on a single piece of oak has been cradled. The paint layer seems clean. As one would expect, there are some isolated retouches in the sky, particularly on the right side. The details seem to be very sharp in the darker colors of the foreground. Even the twigs on the tree do not appear to have received retouches. It seems the profiles of the bridge and masts of the boats beyond have been slightly strengthened with retouches in the past. The work is in very good condition and should be hung as is.
"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."

This delicate, atmospheric winter landscape is by the rare master Isack van Ostade who died young, at only 28 years of age, in October 1649 in his hometown of Haarlem. Trained by his older brother Adriaen (1610-1685; see lot 16 in this sale), Isack specialized in peasant scenes, at first painting interiors and later situating his scenes outdoors. From circa 1642 he painted exclusively winter landscapes and tavern scenes. 

As pointed out by Peter Sutton¹, the artist's winter landscapes included both larger, perhaps more ambitious, scenes on canvas in the tonal manner inspired by Jan van Goyen, as well as scenes of a smaller format on panel, such as in the present work, which are characterized by a lighter overall tonality, a more delicate touch and stronger local color. Ostade's later winter landscapes are highly original creations, and are certainly not indebted to those of Isack's presumed teacher Salomon van Ruysdael. All of Van Ostade's winter landscapes date from just a brief period of 7 years, between circa 1642 and 1649. The Weldon picture can be dated to the very final period of his life, to after 1645 and before the winter of 1649. Many of the winter scenes are composed on an imaginary diagonal, as here, with the thatched-roof cottage on the left, a horse-drawn sledge on a ramp, leading towards a cluster of figures sitting near a sleigh with a saleswoman selling her wares, and a distant view to a frozen horizon with skaters and the silhouettes of a town. The two men with a dog on a timber bridge over a narrow canal seem to mark off the composition towards the horizon with its archetypical pink sunset of a cold winter day. With regard to technique, the Weldon winter landscape shows all the excellent handling of paint that characterized the artist’s last and best period. The paint surface is still surprisingly fresh, especially in the cottage where rich brushstrokes describe the textures of straw, ice, snow, wood and brickwork. As observed by Minty, some minor pentimenti can be discerned, such as in the hat of the figure to the right on the bridge. ²

The sledge with a wooden barrel drawn by a sturdy grey horse leaves the ice via a plank bridge, and a boy, whose red hat just adds that subtle splash of color in that area, pushes a sledge burdened with firewood. The motif of the horse drawing a sledge up a ramp was a favorite theme of Isack van Ostade and also occurs, for example, in his winter landscape in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.³  A comparable work to the Weldon picture, in terms of style, composition and size, is a Winter Scene with an Inn by a Frozen Stream of circa 1646 in the National Gallery, London (fig. 1).⁴ As Ariane van Suchtelen observed, Ostade made many figure studies and preparatory sketches drawn from life of farmhouses, barns, inns and other motifs, but none are preliminary for this particular painting.⁵

For the inhabitants of northwestern Europe, the 17^th century came in the middle of a centuries-long period of extremely cold winters and relatively cool summers. The period of circa 1550 until circa 1850 has been labeled the Little Ice Age, a period in which winters not only lasted for months at a time but also were invariably colder than now, causing canals and rivers to be frozen deep enough to support ice skating and winter festivals.⁶  

A note on the provenance
After De Ridder’s death in May 1911 his collection went on loan to the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie in Frankfurt, and in 1913 was put on exhibition briefly in New York and made available for private sale through F. Kleinberger Galleries. As Wilhelm von Bode writes in his catalogues of the De Ridder collection in the 1910s, Von Bode considered the present work "...an outstanding picture of the artist,...with the color laid on with vigour and somewhat thickly, the tone warm, the coloring effective. From the excellent drawing we may conclude that it was painted during the artist's last and best period."

1.  P.C. Sutton, in Masters of 17th Century Dutch Landscape Painting, exhibition catalogue Amsterdam, Boston, Philadelphia 1987/88, pp. 390-392.
2.  Baltimore 1999, under Literature, p. 82.
3.  Sutton, op. cit., p. 391-392, cat. no. 63, reproduced plate 45.
4.  Isack van Ostade, Winter Scene with an Inn by a Frozen Stream, signed, oil on panel, 48.8 by 40 cm.; National Gallery, London, inv. no. 848.
5.  A. van Suchtelen, in Holland Frozen in Time. The Dutch Winter Landscape in the Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, The Hague 2001-2002, unpaginated under cat. no. 20; see also B. Schnackenburg, Adriaen van Ostade. Isack van Ostade: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, Hamburg 1981, vol. I, cat. nos. 405-630.
6.  Van Suchtelen, op.cit.,  ‘The Little Ice Age’, pp. 12-27.