ADRIAEN JANSZ. VAN OSTADE (1610 – – 1685)

Peasants making music and dancing in a Tavern

Signed and dated lower left, A. V. Ostade 1636 On panel – 17 x 20 ½ ins. (43.2 x 52.1 cm)

Provenance: Vanderbueken, Brussels, 1840 J.J. Chapuis J. & A. Le Roy, Brussels, 4 December 1865, lot 293 (1325 francs) to De Haest, Antone Sils sale, Jean Dirickx, Antwerp, 21 March 1882, lot 34 With P. de Boer, , 1954 Colonel and Mrs Harry E. Stewart, Dallas, and by descent

Literature: C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné…, , 1910, III, p.312, no.554, as “van Ostade”

VP4422

A party of peasants is making merry in a barn: a musician is seated in their midst, his foot resting on a foot-warmer, playing the violin. A couple has taken to the floor and dances energetically to the music, while the other members of the company look on from the sidelines. Standing beside the fiddler, is a fellow in a tall hat, who sings along to the tune, while his companions loll about on low benches, smoking and drinking. In the right foreground, heaped up beside a water pump, is a large still life of kitchen and household objects. A chicken perches on a wicker basket, another pecks about in the bare earth floor and a lone playing card lies face up nearby. The theme of the low-life interior was developed by the gifted but short-lived Flemish painter , who according to Houbraken, studied with in Haarlem at the same time as . Although Houbraken’s statement may not be reliable, there is little doubt that Ostade knew Brouwer and his work. In his early paintings, Ostade emulated the style and subject matter of the Flemish master, who resided in Haarlem until 1631. Like Brouwer, Ostade painted squalid taverns and barn interiors, populated by uncouth peasants engaged in boisterous and dissolute behaviour. His early figures are characterised by wild gestures, strong emotions and exaggerated features, while their coarse manners are complemented by a free and sketchy technique. At the same time, he cultivated a forceful chiaroscuro and a predominantly brown and grey colour scheme, enlivened with accents of pale red, blue and mauve.

Painted in 1636, two years after Ostade joined the Haarlem guild, Peasants making Music and dancing in a Tavern exemplifies Ostade’s youthful style and the type of low-life scenes he produced during the first phase of his career. Despite the influence of Brouwer, Ostade’s distinctive artistic personality is already evident. His handling of paint is tighter and more precise than Brouwer’s and strong contrasts of light and dark play a more important role in structuring his compositions. The figures in the young Ostade’s interiors are relatively smaller than those in Brouwer’s: moreover, they are less individualised and rely more on body language than facial gestures to convey character and mood. Here, the almost frenzied motion of the dancing couple captures the raw energy of such rustic entertainments and the drama is enhanced by the spotlit lighting effects. Although in such works Ostade focuses on the boorish behaviour of his subjects, his images of the common man are never as biting or harshly satirical as those of Brouwer. Later on, as his career progressed, Ostade’s view of the common man changed and his peasants gradually assume a more civilised and domesticated appearance.

Certain aspects of the present painting suggest influences from a different quarter. The prominence given to the beautifully-painted still life in the foreground recalls the peasant interiors developed a few years earlier by the Rotterdam low-life masters Herman and Cornelis Saftleven. In their low-life scenes, which are invariably set in dark barnlike interiors, the brightly-lit foreground is dominated by a large still life of everyday objects, set to one side, while a genre scene with human figures and animals is featured on the opposite side. Especially impressive here, is the delicacy of the brushwork employed in the rendering of detail in the still life elements. The artist has lavished the greatest of care in the description of the various household objects and their textures: small white highlights sparkle on the surface of copper, glazed earthenware, wickerwork and the papery skins of onions. Such a precise technique looks forward to the interiors of Ostade’s maturity, in which delicately-rendered still life elements are a characteristic feature.

Baptised on 10 December 1610, Adriaen van Ostade was the third of eight 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 a pupil of Hals at the same time, is very evident. Ostade is first referred to as a painter in 1632 and was a member of the Haarlem St Luke’s Guild by 1634. In 1636, he joined the militia company, Oude Schuts, and on 26 July 1638, he married Machteltje Pietersdr. of Haarlem. Two years later he was sued by Salomon van Ruysdael for non- payment of 14 guilders for tuition and board. In March 1642, Adriaen and his wife drew up a will: seven and half months later she died, childless, and was buried in St. Bavo’s on 27 September. Ostade remarried on 26 May 1657. His second wife, Anna Ingels, was from a wealthy Catholic family and the artist may have converted at the time of his marriage. He and his new wife moved from the house he had purchased in 1650 on the Cromme Elleboochsteech to the Koningstraat. By August 1663 they were living on the Veerstraat. The couple had 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. The artist was named hoofdman of the painters’ guild in 1647 and 1661 and deken in 1662. His wife Anna died in 1666 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. Six days after witnessing his daughter’s marriage on 21 April 1685 to a surgeon, Dirck van der Stoel, Ostade died: he 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.

Although he produced a few history paintings and portraits, Adriaen van Ostade was primarily a painter and etcher of peasant genre scenes. In addition to paintings, this prolific artist produced about fifty etchings and numerous drawings and watercolours.

P.M.