VP4338 ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE (1610 – Haarlem – 1685) A Tavern Interior with Peasants smoking and drinking Signed on the mantelpiece: A. v. Ostade On panel - 10 ⅝ x 12 ⅞ ins. (27 x 32.8 cm) PROVENANCE Sale of J. -B. van Lancker, Antwerp, 1835, lot 76 (2050 francs) MM. Tardieu fils, Paris, 1840 Sale, Héris (Biré Collection), Paris, 25 March 1841, lot 32 (4900 francs) M. Stayaert van den Busche, Brussels, 1856 Vicomte de Buisseret, Brussels Sale, Galerie S. Luc, Brussels, 29 April 1891, lot 83 Martin Colnaghi, London, 1895 Charles Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, 1897 Galerie Weber, Hamburg, 1912 Beaufort Sale, American Art Association, New York, 21 October 1937, lot 16 Private collection, Germany, until 2009 LITERATURE John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London 1829-42, suppl., p. 104, no. 86 Charles Blanc, Le Trésor de la Curiosité, 1857-58, vol. II, p. 444 Sedelmeyer Gallery, The Four Hundred, Paris, 1897, no. 27 C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné…, 1908, vol. III, no. 277 EXHIBITED Royal Academy, London, 1895, no. 84 NARRATIVE This little tavern scene is one of Ostade’s many interpretations of a familiar theme. Five peasants are pictured in the dusky interior. In the foreground, is a seated man, wearing a conical hat, who lights his pipe from a pot of embers. His companion, dressed in a reddish jacket, stands before him, leaning his left arm on the back of a chair and holding a jug in his right hand. A pipe and a wrap of paper containing tobacco lie on the seat of the chair. In the background, gathered round a fireplace are a man and a woman, with a small child. A piece of paper with text is pinned to the mantelpiece, perhaps advertising the refreshments which are on offer. A short flight of steps leads to a door on the right, while on the left, a staircase ascends to the floor above. A picturesque clutter of everyday objects fills the humble interior. On account of the dark and nearly monochrome character of this painting, Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg dates it to around 1660i. By this date, Ostade had been painting peasant scenes for nearly thirty years and was well established and successful. He was a remarkably productive artist: some eight hundred paintings by his hand are known, as well as fifty etchings and a large number of drawings. His work seems to have been much sought after in his lifetime and as a result of his second marriage, in 1657, to a rich woman from Amsterdam, he became quite well-to-do. The theme of the low-life interior was developed by the gifted but short-lived Flemish painter Adriaen Brouwer who, according to Houbraken, studied with Frans Hals in Haarlem at the same time as Adriaen van Ostade. Although this statement may not be accurate, Ostade’s early work, painted in the 1630s, is testimony to the profound influence of Brouwer, both in terms of style and subject matter. Like Brouwer, Ostade painted rustic taverns and interiors, with rough types engaged in all manner of dissolute behaviour. His peasants are sketchily drawn and characterised by wild gestures, strong emotions and exaggerated features. Typical of his works from this period are strong contrasts of light and shade and a predominantly brown and grey colour scheme, enlivened with pastel shades. As he matured, Ostade developed an independent style. The paintings from his middle period are typified by more even lighting conditions, although the artist continued to favour dimly-lit interiors. Space is more clearly defined and his figures appear more weighty and are less given to violent movements. His brushwork is painterly, but nonetheless precise and his figures and their costumes, as well as the furnishings and paraphernalia of peasant life, are described in greater detail. Gradually, Ostade distanced himself from Brouwer’s brutally satirical images of the common man and, although he painted peasant scenes throughout his career, his conception of the lower classes changed. From around the 1640s onwards, his low-life characters become increasingly civilized and prosperous. They cast off their coarse appearance and renounce their rudest behaviour. By the time that Ostade painted this picture, scenes of debauchery and excess are the exception rather than the rule. Here, the habitués of this humble country inn appear quite comfortably off, as they sit around smoking, drinking and contentedly warming themselves by the fire. Moreover, the scene does not appear to have any pointedly moralising intent, but aims merely to please and entertain through its simple evocation of peasant life. Ostade’s gentle and poetic approach to his chosen genre was greatly admired during his lifetime and beyond. Writing in the eighteenth century, Arnold Houbraken’s appraisal of Ostade’s work is aptly descriptive, when he remarked upon the artist’s “… interiors, with their ramshackle furnishings and inns and taverns complete with their trappings, which he was capable of representing as cleverly and realistically as anyone ever did”, as well as “the figures in their costumes doing all sorts of activities, so naturally rustic and witty that it is astonishing how he was able to contrive it”ii. Ostade’s vision of the respectable peasant may reflect his own enhanced social standing, or perhaps the changing views of middle-class society as a whole. By mid-century, moralising texts that extolled the simple virtues of peasants were as numerous as those which ridiculed their base pleasures. Such attitudes undoubtedly had an effect on general trends in genre painting and also presumably on the expectations of patrons. Baptised in the Reformed Church in Haarlem on 10 December 1610, Adriaen van Ostade was the fifth of ten children born to a weaver, Jan Hendricx van Eyndhoven, and Janneke Hendriksdr. His training is not documented, but Houbraken states that he studied with Frans Hals around 1627. Although the latter’s influence can scarcely be detected in Ostade’s work, that of Adriaen Brouwer, who was also a pupil of Hals at this time, is very evident. Ostade is first referred to as a painter in 1632, but is not recorded as a member of the Haarlem St Luke’s Guild until 1634. In 1640, he was sued by Salomon van Ruysdael for non-payment of 14 guilders for tuition and board. The artist served as warden of the painters’ guild in 1647 and 1662 and as dean in 1662-63. Adriaen spent his entire life in Haarlem and was a militiaman in the St. George Civic Guard (Oude Schuts) from 1633 to 1669. On 25 July 1638, Ostade married Machteltje Pietersdr., who was a Catholic. Their marriage was short- lived and remained childless: Machteltje died and was buried in St. Bavo’s on 20 September. Fifteen years later, on 26 May 1657, Ostade married for a second time: his new wife, Anna Ingels, was also Catholic and from a wealthy Amsterdam family. The couple had only one child, Johanna Maria, whose date of birth is unknown, but Ostade became guardian for his sister Maeyken’s five children in 1655 and his brother Jan’s children in 1668. In 1666, his wife Anna died and was buried in St. Bavo’s on 24 November. Municipal documents from 1669 and 1673 indicate that the artist inherited a substantial amount from Anna and her father. By 1670 he was living in the wealthy Ridderstraat in Haarlem. On 21 April 1685, Ostade was present at the drafting of the marriage contract between his only daughter and the physician Dirck van der Stoel. Ostade died shortly afterwards and was buried in St. Bavo’s on 2 May. His daughter held public auctions of his works on 3-4 July 1685 and 27 April 1686. Adriaen van Ostade was primarily a painter of peasant genre scenes, but he also produced a few landscapes, history paintings and portraits. He was also a prolific draughtsman and etcher. In addition to his brother Isaack and Cornelis Dusart, Houbraken states that Cornelis Bega, Michiel van Musscher and Jan Steen were his pupils. P.M. i We are grateful to Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg for his observations, made in a private communication on 17 August 2009. ii Arnold Houbraken, De Groote Schouburgh…….., 1718-21, Vol. I., p. 347. .