^ >Baptized as an infant on 10 December 1610: Adriaen van Ostade, Dutch painter, draftsman, and engraver who died on 27 April 1685.
— Van Ostade may have studied under the Dutch artist Frans Hals [born 1583 – 01 Sep 1666] and later came under the influence of the great master Rembrandt [15 Jul 1606 – 04 Oct 1669]; Ostade was probably the teacher of the genre painter Jan Steen [1626 – 03 Feb 1679]. Ostade painted many small genre pictures, lively and vigorous and full of subtle effects of light and shade. His subject matter included tavern scenes, peasants drinking and smoking, itinerant musicians, village festivities, and quaint village characters. He also made 50 etchings depicting peasant life. While his early works are generally filled with rowdy, bawdy characters, his works after around 1650 show more refined and respectable scenes.
—     Van Ostade was born in Haarlem where he lived and worked his whole life. According to Arnold Houbraken [1660-1719], Adriaen van Ostade and Adriaen Brouwer were both students of Frans Hals. Whether this was the case is now no longer known. In Van Ostade's early paintings of peasant life the influence of Adriaen Brouwer is clearly evident. Throughout his life Van Ostade continued to paint peasants, usually smoking or drinking, in a tavern or a livingroom. He also painted biblical scenes, various portraits and numerous practitioners of professions - some respectable, others not: market vendors, schoolmasters, lawyers and quacks.
     In 1634 Van Ostade entered the Haarlem painters guild in which he was to fulfill various functions. Van Ostade was also a member of the Haarlem civic guard. Militiamen were generally drawn from the wealthier families, which suggests that Van Ostade was doing well. As a painter, he was highly productive: he made more than 800 paintings and about 200 drawings and watercolors. Adriaen van Ostade taught several students, among whom his younger brother Isaack van Ostade, Cornelis Bega and probably Jan Steen. Van Ostade achieved considerable popularity in his own day. Other artists copied his work or emulated his subjects and attempted to imitate his style.
— Adriaen van Ostade (Adriaen Hendricx) was born in Haarlem. His father, Jan Hendricx, came from Ostade near Eindhoven, and his sons, Adriaen and Isaac, adopted this name as painters. In 1627, Adriaen was a student of Frans Hals, and, in 1634 joined the Lukas Guild in Haarlem of which he was later the head, in 1647, 1661 and 1662.
     He was one of the most popular Dutch painters, specializing from the start in genre painting of peasant life. In his early period, A. van Ostade was under the influence of A. Brouwer [1605-1638]; in the 1640s of Rembrandt. From about 1650 his paintings turned more and more towards Delft genre painting, the interiors became more pleasant, and open-air scenes were added.
— Adriaen van Ostade and his brother Isack van Ostade [bap. 02 Jun 1621 – >16 Oct 1649 bur.] were among the eight children of Jan Hendricx van Eyndhoven, probably a linen-weaver, and Janneke Hendriksen, both of whom had moved to Haarlem from the Eindhoven area.
     A. van Ostade may have been, concurrently with Adriaen Brouwer, a student of Frans Hals in Haarlem. Hals influenced him very little, whereas Brouwer, who was described as ‘known far and wide’ as early as 1627, had a decisive influence on the evolution of Adriaen van Ostade’s always idiosyncratic portrayal of peasant life. The first documentary mention of Adriaen van Ostade as a painter is in 1632. Most of his paintings are signed and dated, the earliest firmly dated example being the Peasants Playing Cards (1633). He was a member of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke by 1634 at the latest.
      In an active career that spanned more than 50 years, Adriaen became one of the most prolific Dutch artists of the 17th century. In his principal speciality, peasant and low-life genre painting, he enjoyed a leading position and considerable influence. The subjects of his single- and multi-figured compositions include, alongside the village fair (kermis) and other festivals, scenes of play and diversion both inside and outside the village inn, scenes of family life, domestic and agricultural work, and schools and various trades (cobbling, weaving, baking, barbering, market trading, peddling, alchemy, etc.). He situated his own work as a painter within the same humble, artisanal context in his several versions of The Painter’s Workshop. He also produced several single and group portraits, as well as a few sumptuous still-lifes. He died in Haarlem.
—      A. van Ostade had many students and followers, the most important among them were his younger brother, Isack van Ostade,  Jan Steen, Cornelis Dusart, Michiel van Musscher, and Cornelis Pieterszoon Bega.

— LINKS
— Dancing Couple (38x52cm; 1153x1600pix, 138kb) _ In an old peasant's hut or cellar, a group of peasants are having fun with music, dance, drink and tobacco. The couple on the left are dancing, with legs and feet flying to the sound of the violin. On the right a man is drinking beer out of an enormous striped glass, a 'pass glass'. These were often used for drinking games. The person with the glass of beer in his hand had to drink from one stripe to the next in one go. The forfeit for failing was to drink to the next stripe, and so on until the drinker managed to hit a stripe.
— Peasants in an Interior (The Skaters) (1650, 44x36cm) _ In a dimly-lit tavern, a group of peasants crowd round the hearth. They are talking, drinking and smoking. To judge from the skates on the floor, the temperature is probably below 0ºC outside. Which is why this painting by Adriaen van Ostade has traditionally been known as The Skaters.
     Van Ostade mainly painted and drew scenes of peasant life, although not as hardworking farm labourers. He preferred to depict country cottages or taverns with groups of peasants after their work, drinking, dancing or smoking. Only rarely did he paint individual portraits, as in The Merry Peasant. In these early works Van Ostade portrayed country life in a rather negative light: the figures appear ill-mannered, coarse and they squander their time.
     Many of Van Ostade's peasants are shown smoking. At that time it was not considered unhealthy, but as corruptive; a vice to which the common people were particularly prone. In his paintings, Van Ostade lambasted this lifestyle. He entertained the 'higher' social classes with scenes of desreputable peasant life. 'Decent' people should avoid that kind of behavior, was the message. It is a caricature of this section of the population which probably bore little relation to reality.
     Van Ostade placed a stool with a pipe and a jug in the foreground, but the spotlight is on the drinkers. It was Van Ostade's way of warning his audience against excessive use of drink and tobacco and against unproductive activity in general. The pewter jug reflects the light in a subtle way. These vessels were normally for beer or wine. In fact beer was the staple drink for ordinary people; wine was too expensive and water, especially in towns, was not clean enough to consume.
     Van Ostade was influenced by another painter of peasant life, the Fleming Adriaen Brouwer. During Brouwer's short stay in Holland he introduced peasant life as a new theme in painting. His work was particularly influential in Haarlem, especially with Adriaen van Ostade and his younger brother Isack van Ostade.
     Van Ostade painted this work in subdued colors: plenty of brown, earthy tints and discreet reds and greens. The use of sharply contrasting light and dark shades is known as chiaroscuro. Half of the room is dark. Here and there, the light shining inside is reflected, as on the face of the foremost peasant and the white shawls of the mother and child. The use of color and chiaroscuro are reminiscent of Rembrandt. Other paintings by Van Ostade, such as his Landscape with an Old Oak also reveal Rembrandt's influence.
— Landscape with an Old Oak (1640, 34x46cm) _ A landscape with an old oak tree under a threatening sky. Van Ostade, chiefly known for his depictions of peasant scenes, also painted some landscapes. This landscape was presumably inspired by the dunes near Haarlem. It is painted in tints of brown, grey, beige and ochre. The work follows a frequently used compositional pattern: a dark foreground with a tree as repoussoir. The use of color and chiaroscuro show the influence of Rembrandt. _ See Rembrandt's The Stone Bridge
— Peasants in an Interior (1661, 37x47cm) _ Gathered in a spacious but soberly furnished room is a company of peasants. In the centre by the hearth a man is talking as he clasps a pitcher of beer. The group in front of him is sitting in relaxed mood; one is filling a pipe while the other is already smoking. A little further off two peasants are talking while in the background is a group round a table. Everywhere Gouda clay pipes are lying around; there are some jugs and other household objects on the floor. In the foreground the eye catches a little girl eating something while a dog looks on. In this spontaneous scene Adriaen van Ostade has painted a good-natured world of countryfolk enjoying their leisure. In some of his other paintings they are treated with less respect.
     Gouda pipes are white and have a long, slender stem and a small bowl. They were mass produced from around 1617 in the Gouda area, where white pipe clay (terra alba) was readily available. Copper moulds were used to model the clay, which was subsequently fired in the kilns of local potters. Pipes manufactured in other cities usually had shorter stems, but long stems were popular because they cooled the smoke better. However, they were difficult to produce, and the pipe-makers of Gouda were the only manufacturers with the necessary expertise.
     Van Ostade mainly painted and drew scenes of peasant life, although not as hardworking farm laborers. He preferred to depict country cottages or taverns with groups of peasants after their work, drinking, dancing or smoking. Only rarely did he paint individual portraits, as in The Merry Peasant. In these early works Van Ostade portrayed country life in a rather negative light: the figures appear ill-mannered, coarse and they squander their time.
— The Fishwife (1673, 36x39cm) _ A woman behind a fish stall is showing us wonderfully fresh fish. The light is falling directly on her face and hands. The woman looks out of the painting, directly at the viewer. The bond between the viewer and the fishwife is strengthened by the painting's composition: by cutting off part of the market stall, the viewer appears almost to be standing in the stall.
     The fishwife is not simply a fishwife: she is an example of virtuous behavior. She carries out her work with care and attention. Whereas fishwives, proverbially speaking (even in those days), are renowned for their loud and shrill shouting, this woman makes a quiet and friendly impression. The painter has based the construction of the fish stall, with its Doric column and pantile roof, on an existing example. The stalls on the fish market in his home town of Haarlem served as models. Van Ostade has signed the painting on one of the columns, immediately under the displayed fish.
     Van Ostade became famous above all for his depictions of peasant life and tavern scenes. His early work was usually staffed by drinking, smoking and fighting peasants. Later on he also often chose occupations as subjects for his paintings: from quack doctors and market folk to painters, school teachers and even lawyers. Van Ostade's use of color changed during his long painting career. In the beginning, his paintings were usually almost monochrome, with plenty of brown, beige, and ochre. Here the colors are lighter, with a few bright accents such as the blue sky and pink salmon.
     Market scenes occur in Dutch paintings as early as 1560. In the seventeenth century such tableaux were painted mainly by Hendrick Sorgh [1611-1670], Adriaen van Ostade and Cornelis Saftleven. These paintings provide a good impression of markets in the seventeenth century. In The Fishwife we see that the fish were simply laid out for the customers on wooden planks. As is still the case today, they were filleted on the spot. In the background we can see reed baskets and part of an old-fashioned set of scales: two planks on a rope with a weight.
_ See The Fishwife (1672, 29x26cm; 719x661pix, 121kb) by Cornelius Dusart (though sometimes attributed to van Ostade) _ Van Ostade's work was extremely popular in his own time. Other Haarlem painters chose the same subjects for their paintings in an attempt to immitate Van Ostade. Sometimes specific works were taken as examples or were copied. Van Ostade's student Dusart made a copy of The Fishwife. This panel is similar to Van Ostade's work; Dusart, however, has given the woman a different collar and has reduced the space beside the stall.
     The ugly face of this fat woman convinces one that she has spent all her life as a fishwife. She is framed by the outline of the market-stall with its board for a counter. Against this background of silver-scaled fish she herself looks like some frog-eyed creature, colorfully dressed for market. The picture is small but the artist has filled in a background depicting the teeming life of the market. Every detail, the display of fish, the figure behind the stall, the small building and the general view in the background together make up an animated scene which is captivating despite a complete absence of dramatic episodes, tension or humour. Van Ostade was in the habit of painting several versions of a favorite motif: there is a larger version of The Fishwife, listed above.
_ See also A Fish Stall by a Harbor (31x26cm; 512x430pix, 22kb) by Sorgh — A#>Fish Market on the Banks of the River (1611; 790x1144pix, 199kb) by Jan Bruegel the Elder.
— The Merry Peasant (1640, 16x14cm; 3x overenlargement to blurry 1600x1364pix, 246kb, will then reduce itself to full size, 561x478pix) _ This jolly individual, judging by the beer mug in his hand, could be at an inn. Van Ostade has captured the facial expression well: the broad, smiling mouth, the round cheeks and the half-closed, laughing eyes. The use of color is limited, almost monochrome. These are indications that this is an early work by the artist. The striped relief in the paint clearly reveals the picture to be painted on wood.
— The Painter's Studio (1640, 37x36cm) _ A painter is working in his studio, a simply-furnished attic room. On the easel is a panel on which the artist is painting a kind of town gate. He is steadying his hand with a maulstick, enabling him to work with greater precision. Much of the room is dark. The colors are also dark and almost monochrome: van Ostade used almost exclusively brown and beige tints. The only color accents are the red cap of the artist and the blue sky. Is this Van Ostade himself, in his own studio? Possibly. But it is not certain.
     This painting provides a good impression of the inside of a seventeenth-century studio. At that time, established artists rarely worked entirely alone. They would have had apprentices and advanced students or journeymen. These were the two phases a young painter would have to complete in order to become a master. This painter also has two assistants. The apprentice is busy grinding the pigments into powder on a stone. They would then be mixed with linseed oil. This was how oil paints were made in the artist's own studio. The other student is adding the various colors onto the palette in the correct order, so that the painter can use them right away.
     The artist is wearing Burgundian clothes: a jacket with puffed sleeves and splits. By that time this old-fashioned and rather eccentric. The artist does not appear to be particularly wealthy. His studio is a simple and rather untidy room, with very little furniture or other objects. Other artists also portrayed the way they worked in a similar manner. A Painter's Studio by Michael Sweerts, for example, is larger and appears well-organized.
     On the left, the light enters through an arched window with stained-glass. Van Ostade employed a similar window in several of his other works, generally also on the left of the painting, for example in the two versions of Peasants in an Interior listed above. Perhaps he had a window like this in his studio, or in his home. The patterns in the stained-glass window differ each time.
     In preparation for The Painter's Studio Van Ostade made an etching depicting the same subject. Many of the elements are the same in both works: the painter's pose, the position of the easel and the industrious apprentices in the background. The biggest difference is the window, which seems much larger in the etching and allows much more light in. This makes it possible to distinguish more details of the studio in the etching, such as the stairs to the floor above and a shelf with a statue.
— The Pall-Mall Court (1677)
–- Drunkards in a Tavern (42x57cm; 877x1174pix, 70kb _ .ZOOM to 1757x2349pix, 716kb)
— De Drinker: Three boors drinking and smoking in a spirit house (29x23cm) _ This painting and its former pendant, A man and a woman drinking at a table, were for long regarded as two of the finest of Adriaen van Ostade. The pendant is dated 1661, placing the pair during the zenith of Ostade's career, at a time when his work combines the mature development of style and subject matter with the vivacity and charm of which he was at his best possessed. In the present painting this is reflected in the sympathy of interpretation, subtlety of palette and fineness of detail for which Ostade is so admired.
      Ostade was one of the foremost genre painters of seventeenth-century Holland, recorded as having started his career as a student of Frans Hals in Haarlem, concurrently with Adriaen Brouwer. It was from these two artists, and from Brouwer in particular, that Van Ostade first developed his themes of parties of smoking, drinking and dancing peasants in their village surroundings. He initially adopted a satirical, almost caricatured, manner, but from the 1640s onwards began to endow his low-life protagonists with increasing degrees of restraint and dignity, his palette becoming richer and his chiaroscuro stronger.
      Although such works are more prevalent from the 1640s, from relatively early in his career Van Ostade had painted scenes of tranquil domestic comfort (for example the Village Alehouse with Four Figures of 1635). In them, the action is less important than the depiction of a psychological state, and the setting gains in significance. In the course of the 1640s, however, Ostade increasingly began to explore that approach to the theme, thereby moving further away from Brouwer's influence towards a fully mature, personal style. His interiors became more spacious, flat-ceilinged and better furnished, whilst the figures and their costumes, as well as the furnishings and utensils attendant on peasant life, are shown in more detail, for example the Three Peasants at an Inn of 1647.
      Through the 1650s and by the date of the present work, scenes of excessive drinking and gambling became the exception rather than the rule. Ostade's peasants are mostly shown relishing the small pleasures permitted by their modest existence. This shift is accompanied by a change in the implicit meaning of the pictures: thus in place of, or alongside, the traditional satire on human frailty, the simplicity of peasant life is held up as a model or even idealized. In addition, his interiors continue to show an increasing emphasis on detail, whilst, as in the present work, the strong local coloring of the figures stands out powerfully from the tonal twilight of the interior setting.
—(061209)