RKD STUDIES

Haarlem, baptised 19 December 1610–Haarlem, buried 2 May 1685 in the Grote Kerk
Dutch painter, draughtsman and etcher

Adriaen van Ostade [1] was the son of the weaver Jan Hendricx from Ostade near Eindhoven in Brabant. His brother Isaac van Ostade (1621–49) was also a painter. According to the 18th-century biographer Houbraken, he was a pupil of Frans Hals (1582/3–1666) around 1627; this is now fixed on 1626 by documentary evidence. Ostade’s early works closely resemble those of Adriaen Brouwer (1605–38), who could have been his contemporary in Hals’s workshop. He had entered the Haarlem Guild of St Luke by 1632 and in 1640 he was sued by Salomon van Ruysdael (c. 1600/1603–70) for failing to provide board and tuition. Ostade served as warden of the guild in 1647 and 1662, and dean in 1662–3. In 1685 he attended the marriage of his daughter, but died only six days later.

His œuvre consists mainly of two themes: peasant feasts, usually in taverns, and more sedate scenes of peasants at rest. In the 1650s the latter theme began to be dominant, with the figures becoming more refined. In the following decade his style came under the influence of the Leiden fijnschilders – the Leiden Fine Painters – of whom Gerard Dou (1613–75) was the most famous. In the 1670s his palette grew brighter and richer and was unified by a greenish tonality.

Ostade’s possessions in the realm of art were auctioned in 1685: they comprised more than two hundred paintings by him and other masters, many prints and drawings by him and others, and all his copperplates. Part of his estate went to Cornelis Dusart (1660–1704), who in some instances finished Ostade’s paintings, under their joint names.

In the Desenfans Insurance list of 1804 two Ostade works are mentioned: ‘Dutch Boors’ (DPG115) and ‘A Conversation’ (DPG45). According to Britton in 1813 the Bourgeois collection included six paintings by the Ostade brothers – four by Adriaen and two by Isaac. Of those by Adriaen, three are still considered to be by him: DPG45, 98, and 113. DPG16 is now thought to be by J. van Mosscher (c. 1605; active c. 1635–55). But one of the Isaac van Ostades is now attributed to Adriaen, DPG115. There is also a copy after Adriaen, DPG619. The other ‘Isaac van Ostade’, DPG64, is now thought to be by Govert Camphuysen (1623/4–72).

LITERATURE
Slatkes 1978, pp. 327–63; Schnackenburg 1981; Schnackenburg 1984; Pelletier, Slatkes & Stone-Ferrier 1994; Phagan & Eiland 1996; Schnackenburg 1996c; Van der Coelen 1998; Van Thiel-Stroman 2006f; Ebert 2013; Saur, xciii, 2017, pp. 528–30 (G. Seelig); Ecartico, no. 5805: http://www.vondel.humanities.uva.nl/ecartico/persons/5805 (Sept. 17, 2017); RKDartists&, no. 61082: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/61082 (Sept. 17, 2017).

1
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), c. 1645
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of Art (Washington), inv./cat.nr. 1937.1.70

1647; oak panel, 27.1 x 21.6 cm
Signed and dated, bottom right: Av Ostade 1647 (Av as monogram)

PROVENANCE
?;¹ ?Sir Simon Haughton Clarke, 9th Bt, and George Hibbert’s sale, Christie’s, 15 May 1802 (Lugt 6431), lot 31, bt [Charles] Birch, £126;² Insurance 1804, no. 44 (‘Dutch Boors A. Ostade £300’); Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 6, no. 47 (‘Passage to Dining Room / no. 7, Dutch Boors smoking & drinking – Interior (Glass) [no support mentioned] I. Ostade’; 1'10" x 1'6").

REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 17, no. 340 (‘FIFTH ROOM – West Side; Boors Merrymaking; A. Ostade’); Haydon 1817, p. 399, no. 340;³ Cat. 1820, p. 17, no. 340 (‘Boors Merrymaking; A. Ostade’); Patmore 1824b, p. 97, no. 341;⁴ Hazlitt 1824, p. 46;⁵ Smith 1829–42, i (1829), p. 142, no. 125 (as dated 1652; worth 300 gs); Cat. 1830, no. 190; Hazlitt 1843, p. 38;⁶ Penny Magazine 1841c (with Related works, no. 3e);⁷ Waagen 1854, ii, p. 343 (‘This little picture is of astonishing depth, clearness, and warmth of colour’, ‘inscribed 1652’); Denning 1858, no. 190;⁸ Denning 1859, no. 190;⁹ Sparkes 1876, p. 114, no. 190 (‘exquisite example of the master’s velvety and delicate beauty of colour and execution’; ‘Signed and dated 1647 (?)’); Richter & Sparkes 1880, pp. 111–12, p. 112, no. 190 (‘A most beautiful and well-preserved specimen of the master, of his best time’);¹⁰ Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 29, no. 115; HdG, iii, 1910, p. 244, no. 327 (Schönes Bild aus der besten Zeit des Meisters (Engl. edn, p. 239: ‘A fine picture of the master’s best period’); Cook 1914, pp. 68–9, no. 115;¹¹ Cook 1926, pp. 64–5, no. 115; Cat. 1953, p. 30; Vivian 1962, pp. 332–3 (note 36); Bernt 1970, ii, n.p., fig. 890; Murray 1980a, p. 89; Murray 1980b, p. 20; De Hoop Scheffer & Keyes 1984, p. 212, under no. 22 (Related works, no. 2a; Fig.); Knupfer 1986, n.p., no. 5; Beresford 1998, p. 176; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 144–5; RKD no. 286220: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/286220 (Sept. 19, 2017).

EXHIBITIONS
London 1952–3, p. 93, no. 497; Houston/Louisville 1999–2000, pp. 162–3, no. 52 (D. Shawe-Taylor).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Single-member oak panel with vertical grain. Pale buff ground. The panel has good planar alignment. The verso top, bottom and left edges are bevelled. The paint film is generally in a good state of preservation. There is a little retouching on the side at the top of the cupboard, and some in the shadows of the background and the knee of the right-hand figure. Around the hands and upper knee of the left figure the paint is slightly thin and abraded. Previous recorded treatment: 1949–53, Dr Hell.

RELATED WORKS
1a) Preparatory drawing: Adriaen van Ostade, Seated Peasant with Crossed Legs, pen and brown ink, 130 x 92 mm. Present whereabouts unknown (Sir Robert Mond sale, Colnaghi’s, London, May 1953, lot 38; photo Witt).
1b) Adriaen van Ostade, Interior of an Inn, signed and dated Av ostade / 1643, panel, 28.6 x 35.8 cm. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève, Geneva, 1898–28.¹²
2a) Jonas Suyderhoef after Adriaen van Ostade (DPG115), Jan de Moff (Interior of a Poor House with Three Peasants), before 1652, engraving, 285 x 223 mm. BM, London, 1852,0214.408. With caption: Als Jan de Moff sijn Veel doet spelen een nieu Wijsje / en lichte Pietjes keel daer onder tureluert / Dan ist a vous a moy een pijpje droncke Gijsje / Tap, schenk, wie scheijter nu, soo langh sijn geltje duert (When John the Jerry [pejorative word for a German] makes his violin play a new tune / and light [slight?] Peter’s throat sings along with it / Then it’s time for you and for me to drink a little pipe, Gijsje / Tap, pour – who stops as long as his money lasts) and CIVißcher Excu [2].¹³
2b) Jonas Suyderhoef after Adriaen Brouwer, Three Peasants at an Inn, inscriptions in Latin, engraving, 326 (trimmed) x 252 mm (first state). BM, London, 1865,0610.47.¹⁴
3a) Copy: Anonymous follower, panel, 29 x 23 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Eymael sale, Hôtel des Comtes de Méan, Liège, 6 Nov. 1905, lot 185; photo Witt).
3b) Copy: Signed and dated Cornelis Dusart f. 1691, canvas, 28 x 22 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Dorotheum, Vienna, 10–12 Sept. 1959, lot 38; photo Witt).
3c) 19th-century copy: John Graham-Gilbert (?), Three Peasants at an Inn, panel, 27.9 x 22.5 cm. Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums): Kelvingrove Museum, Mrs John Graham-Gilbert Bequest, 1877, 594.¹⁵
3d) Copy: Stephen Poyntz Denning, signed and dated on verso S. P. Denning. / Fecit / 1825, panel, 30.5 x 25 cm. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, QVM:0:FP:0960.¹⁶
3e) Copy: John Jackson, Boors Merrymaking – Ostade, wood engraving, Penny Magazine 1841c, p. 265.

Lent to the RA to be copied in 1847, 1852 and 1857.

While the other pictures by Adriaen van Ostade in the Dulwich collection are late works, DPG115 was painted in the middle of his long career, in 1647. Around this time he began to move away from multi-figure scenes to smaller groups such as this. It clearly demonstrates Ostade’s skills as a colourist, as he places figures in dark settings and uses chiaroscuro and careful local colour to animate the scene. The painting also shows him skilfully arranging the group in a triangle. It is worth noting that in 1829 Smith described it as bearing the date 1652: he may have been confusing the Dulwich picture with another version of the scene.¹⁷ As Waagen and Denning repeated this date, it might be possible that ‘1652’ was visible in the 19th century, although it is more probable that they were just repeating what they had read. In 1876 Sparkes however gives ‘1647’, with a question mark, probably because this contradicts the three previous authors, who were to be taken seriously.

Smoking and drinking – which were closely associated – were particularly popular subjects for Dutch and Flemish genre painters in the 17th century, and Ostade was no exception, producing numerous small-scale didactic pictures with these themes throughout his career (see also DPG98).

DPG115 seems to be a simplified version of an earlier picture (1643) by Ostade, now in Geneva, which shows a comparable interior of an inn with more figures (Related works, no. 1b). Three Peasants at an Inn was a celebrated picture, and was engraved under the title Jan de Moff (John the Jerry, i.e. the German) by Jonas Suyderhoef (c. 1613 –86; Related works, no. 2a) [2], who produced a series of engravings after Adriaen van Ostade.¹⁸ Its accompanying verses sing about the joys of tobacco, beer and music. Suyderhoef made another print after a very similar scene by Adriaen Brouwer, accompanied by verses in Latin praising tobacco, wine and food (Related works, no. 2b). According to Eddy de Jongh the Latin verses next to the print after Brouwer are an example of the ‘paradoxical panegyric’, where by praising things they are criticized.¹⁹ That could also be the case with the Dutch verses next to the Jan de Moff print.

Vivian argued that DPG115 might be one of a series of the five senses that had been in the collection of the Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675–1741): ‘Cinque Quadretti rappnti li 5 sentim.’ The Dulwich picture would in that case represent Hearing.²⁰ That is a possibility, although the drinking and smoking are as prominent as the music-making, but that happens in other representations of Hearing as well. More important is the fact that the other four senses are missing. That the picture remained popular is shown by three 19th-century copies (Related works, nos 3c–3e).

Murray suggested that this might be the Ostade ‘Boors Singing’ that Desenfans offered in his 1795 sale (lot 54). This seems unlikely, however, as that picture had a pendant and the two had repeatedly appeared in his sales since 1785. It may have been acquired after his 1802 sale, where it does not appear.

DPG115
Adriaen van Ostade
Three peasants at an inn, dated 1647
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG115

2
Jonas Suyderhoef after Adriaen van Ostade
Interior of a poor house with three peasants, 1647-1652
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1852,0214.408

1670s; oak panel, 34.1 x 27.5 cm
Signed, lower right: Av Ostade (Av as monogram); four seals on reverse, one fragmentary

PROVENANCE
?J. P. Wierman sale, Amsterdam, 18 Aug. 1762 (Lugt 1237), lot 37;²¹ ?Le Brun or Rémy sale, Paris, 19 July 1773 (Lugt 2184), lot 29, bt Marquis de Saint-Ceran, 751l;²² ?Evening Mail inventory, 1790–91, pt 2 ([unknown room] ‘Ostade – A Conversation’); not in undated list of ‘Pictures to be Sold’ (early 1790s); ?Desenfans private sale, London, 16 June 1794 (Lugt 5226), lot 374 (‘Ostade – Dutch boors 1 ft. 10 by 1 ft. 7, on pannel’); Desenfans sale, Skinner & Dyke, London, 28 Feb. 1795 (Lugt 5281), lot 12 (‘J. Ostade – A Conversation’); Desenfans sale, Skinner and Dyke, London, 18 March 1802 (Lugt 6380), lot 149, bt Elliott for £110 5s. (bt in);²³ Insurance 1804, no. 122 (‘A Conversation; A. Ostade; £300’); Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 33, no. 353 (‘Closet to S: Drawing Room / no. 5, Interior of a cottage, Man & Woman – P[anel] Ostade’; 1'10" x 1'7").

REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 3, no. 8 (‘FIRST ROOM – South Side; Interior of a Cottage, with a Man and Woman drinking; Adrian van Ostade’); Haydon 1817, p. 370, no. 8 (‘Adrian van Ostade. Interior of a House with a Man and Woman drinking’); Cat. 1820, p. 3, no. 8 (‘Interior Cottage with man and woman drinking; Adrian van Ostade’); Smith 1829–42, i (1829), pp. 141–2, no. 124;²⁴ Cat. 1830, p. 7, no. 107, ‘An Interior of a Cottage, with Figures A. Van Ostade’; Jameson 1842, ii, p. 459, no. 107 (‘Very good’); Denning 1858, no. 107; Denning 1859, no. 107;²⁵ Sparkes 1876, p. 113, no. 107; Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 112, no. 107;²⁶ Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 11, no. 45; HdG, iii, 1910, p. 233, no. 290 (and probably p. 234, no. 294; Engl. edn, p. 228); Cook 1914, pp. 25–6, no. 45; Cook 1926, p. 25; Cat. 1953, p. 30; Białostocki & Kołoszyńska 1974, p. 41, no. 21; Murray 1980a, p. 89 (‘A work of the painter’s later period. On the back of the panel are three unidentified seals and the remains of a fourth’); Murray 1980b, p. 20 (a late work); Beresford 1998, pp. 174–5; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 146–7; RKD, no. 286223: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/286223 (Sept. 19, 2017).

EXHIBITION
Madrid/Bilbao 1999, pp. 130–31, no. 30 (I. A. C. Dejardin).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Single-member oak panel with vertical grain. Light buff ground. The panel has a very slight convex warp but appears stable. The verso sides are bevelled, and there are four illegible wax seals on the back. The paint is generally in good condition. There are small scattered retouchings, notably in the background and the woman’s tunic, disguising patches of wear or areas where the grain of the panel shows through the paint; these now appear matt and slightly darkened. The varnish is a little opaque. Previous recorded treatment: 1949–53, Dr Hell.

RELATED WORKS
1) Copy: present whereabouts unknown (Weustenberg sale, Berlin, 27 Oct. 1908, lot 51, priced at £110 5s.; Henry Weustenberg, 1907 catalogue, no. 92) [3].²⁷
2) Adriaen van Ostade, A Peasant courting an Elderly Woman, signed and dated Av. Ostade. / 1653, panel, 27.3 x 22.1 cm. NG, London, NG2542.²⁸

Hofstede de Groot considered that this dated from late in Ostade’s career, a period when he increasingly concentrated on modest scenes of peasants enjoying the pleasures their station in life afforded them. There is also a degree of nobility in these peasants that is absent from those in his earlier riotous tavern scenes: they have carefully individualized features rather than generic masks. The painting is typically constructed in a range of earth tonalities, accented by highlights of localized colour in the white headscarf, the red top, and the foliage outside. A similar scene by Ostade of an older man and woman sitting by a window with leaded lights is A Peasant courting an Elderly Woman (Related works, no. 2), dated 1653; the difference between that and this late picture reveals a major shift in both mood and in style.

DPG45 may have been in Desenfans’ possession from about 1790–91, and it was definitely included in his 1802 sale of ‘Polish’ pictures. It is conceivable that it may have been originally purchased for Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski, King of Poland (1732–98). It is the sort of representative sample of Ostade’s late style that would have been appropriate for a royal or national collection.

DPG45
Adriaen van Ostade
Interior of a cottage, 1670-1679
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG45

3
naar Adriaen van Ostade
Echtpaar in een boereninterieur, na 1670-1679

1670s; oak panel, 16.2 x 14.2 cm
Signed on table edge, bottom left: Av. Ostade (Av as monogram)

PROVENANCE
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 31, no. 331 (‘Unhung / no. 62, Head, woman with a pitcher – P[anel] Ostade’; 11" x 10").

REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 3, no. 14 (‘FIRST ROOM – South Side; A Woman with a Jug of Beer; Ostade’); Haydon 1817, p. 371, no. 14 (‘A. Van Ostade. A Woman with a jug of Beer’); Cat. 1820, p. 3, no. 14 (‘Woman with Jug of Beer; Ostade’); Cat. 1830, no. 73; Jameson 1842, ii, p. 454, no. 73 (‘finished like a miniature’); Denning 1858, no. 73 (‘School of Adrian Ostade; it may be a copy by Cornelius Dusart, his pupil. The name is a forgery’); Denning 1859, no. 73 (‘School of Adrian Ostade; This cannot be by Ostade, though his name has been forged upon it. It might be a copy by his pupil Cornelius Dusart’); Sparkes 1876, p. 113 (Adrian Ostade); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 112, no. 73 (Adrian van Ostade; ‘Painted in the master’s latest period; cool in tone’); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 25, no. 98; HdG, iii, 1910, p. 212, no. 221 (In kuhlem Ton aus der letzten Periode des Meisters (Engl. edn, p. 208: ‘Cool in tone, and dating from the master’s last period’)); Cook 1914, pp. 57–8, no. 98; Cook 1926, p. 55, no. 98; Cat. 1953, p. 30; Murray 1980a, p. 89 (pair of DPG113; both seem to be late works); Murray 1980b, p. 20; Beresford 1998, p. 175 (pendants; both this and DPG113 are late works); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 148–9 (not the pair of DPG113); RKD, no. 286242: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/286242 (Sept. 25, 2017).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Single-member oak panel. A shallow slice has been sawn horizontally across the middle of the back of the panel one-third from the top edge. There are some vertical cracks near the mid-left side above the cup, and some discoloured retouchings in the background at the top, but overall the paint is in good condition. Previous recorded treatment: 1867, ‘revived’ and varnished; 1949–53, Dr Hell.

RELATED WORKS
1a) Adriaen van Ostade, A Woman drinking, 1660s, panel, 29.8 x 24.8 cm. Cannon Hall Museum, Barnsley, A1943.²⁹
1b) Adriaen van Ostade, A Peasant filling his Pipe, 1660s, panel, 27.9 x 22.9 cm. Cannon Hall Museum, Barnsley, A1942.³⁰

DPG98 has been considered to form a pair with DPG113 since Britton’s inventory in 1813. That is however not likely, as not only are the dimensions different but the compositions face the same way, which is not usual in a pair. Two pictures in Barnsley, slightly larger, also depict a woman drinking and a man smoking, but turned towards each other; they are more likely to have been meant as a pair (Related works, nos 1a and 1b). They are dated in the 1660s; DPG98 was probably also painted late in Ostade’s career. This is another example of Ostade’s numerous small-scale didactic pictures with the subjects of smoking and drinking (see also DPG115).

Denning in his catalogues thought that DPG98 was by Dusart and the signature a forgery, but this has been discounted by all subsequent writers. DPG98 and DPG113 seem to have entered Bourgeois’ collection near the end of his life: no similar works are recorded in Desenfans’ earlier inventories or sales.³¹

DPG98
Adriaen van Ostade
Woman with a beer-jug, 1670-1679
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG98

1670s; oak panel, 15 x 14.1 cm, excluding an addition of 2.1 cm at the bottom
Signed on table edge, lower left: Av. Ostade (Av as monogram)

PROVENANCE
?Paris (Paillet), 17 Feb. ff. 1774 (Lugt 2239), lot 6;³² Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 32, no. 336 (‘Unhung / no. 67, Man smoaking – compn to 62 [DPG98] P[anel] Ostade’; 11" x 10").

REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 3, no. 6 (‘FIRST ROOM – South Side; A Man smoking; Ostade’); Haydon 1817, p. 370, no. 6 (‘Adrian van Ostade. A Man smoaking. A fair example of this esteemed master’); Cat. 1820, p. 3, no. 6 (‘A Man smoking; Ostade’); Cat. 1830, no. 152; Denning 1858, no. 152 (probably by C. Dusart); Denning 1859, no. 152 (may have been painted by Cornelius Dusart); Sparkes 1876, p. 114, no. 152 (A. Ostade); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 112, no. 152 (painted at about the same period as the former picture [i.e. no. 107, DPG45]); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, pp. 28–9, no. 113; HdG, iii, 1910, p.198, no. 174 (aus der späten Zeit des Meisters (Engl. edn, p. 193: ‘A late work’)); Cook 1914, p. 67, no. 113 (‘An excellent example of the master; painted at about the same period as No. [DPG]45’); Cook 1926, pp. 63–4; Cat. 1953, p. 30; Murray 1980a, p. 89 (‘although probably intended as a pendant to [DPG]98, Denning does not seem to have doubted the authenticity of this signature. Both seem to be late works’); Murray 1980b, p. 20; Edwards 1996, pp. 165, 166 (fig.), 223 (note 40);³³ Beresford 1998, p. 175; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 148–9 (not the pair of DPG98); RKD, no. 286251: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/286251 (Sept. 25, 2017).

EXHIBITION
Madrid/Bilbao 1999, pp. 132–3, no. 31 (I. A. C. Dejardin).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Single-member oak panel with horizontal grain. The later addition along the bottom has been joined so that it slopes into the back of the panel, increasing from 2.1 cm wide at the front to 4.7 cm wide at the back. There is a 1 cm split at the top right, which appears to have been caused by a frame that was too tight in the past. The man’s black suit is slightly abraded and has had some retouching. The paint is secure. Previous recorded treatment: 1949–53, Dr Hell.

RELATED WORKS
1a) Signed version: panel, 16.5 x 14 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Merveldt sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 6 Nov. 1928, lot 171).³⁴
1b) Adriaen van Ostade, The Smoker, signed Av Ostade, c. 1655, panel, 17.5 x 15.5 cm. Hermitage, St Petersburg, 4085 [4].³⁵
1c) Adriaen van Ostade, Smoker, panel, 26 x 25 cm. KMSKA, Antwerp, 466.³⁶
2a) Adriaen van Ostade, Smoker lighting his Pipe, c. 1640–47, etching, and pen in brown, 68 x 55 mm. RPK, RM, Amsterdam, RP-P-OB-12.645 [5].³⁷
2b) Adriaen van Ostade, Man wearing a hat, holding a pipe and tankard, and leaning on a window frame, signed Av. ostade [Av as monogram], c. 1648–59, etching, 200 x 156 mm. BM, London, 1855,0114.210.³⁸
2c) Adriaen van Ostade, A man seated at a table directed to the right, holding a pipe, leaning on the back of a chair, signed Av.Ostade.[Av as monogram], c. 1652, etching, 70 x 54 mm. BM, London, 1855,0114.208.³⁹

Like drinking (see DPG98 – with which DPG113 is no longer considered to form a pair), smoking was favoured as a subject by 17th-century Dutch and Flemish genre painters.⁴⁰ Ostade seems to have been particularly fascinated by it, tackling the subject in paintings (Related works, nos 1a–1c) [4] and in prints (Related works, nos 2a–2c).⁴¹ Smoking could be seen as a vice, closely related to drinking alcohol.⁴² One of the Ostade prints (Related works, no. 2a) [5] was republished in 1716, where it is accompanied by verses that speak of tobacco helping to drive all cares from one’s head.⁴³ However some lines further down, smoke, and the act of smoking, are seen as a symbol of the frailty of human life: ‘As I see [tobacco smoke] driven by the wind dispersed in the thin air, then I see it as a model of my life’ (Related works, no. 2b).⁴⁴ Although these two meanings are given in an 18th-century source, we can safely assume that they were the same in the 17th century, as was the idea that smoking was a vice. Hence an image of a smoker such as DPG113 could have different meanings for different people at the same time.

DPG113
Adriaen van Ostade
Man smoking, 1670-1679
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG113

4
Adriaen van Ostade
Smoking man with a jug at a table, 1660-1680
Sint-Petersburg, Hermitage, inv./cat.nr. 4085

5
Adriaen van Ostade
Man lighting his pipe, c. 1640-before 1647
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-OB-12.645

18th century or later; oak panel, 41 x 49 cm
Inscribed on the block of wood, bottom right: Ostade (or Ostads?)

PROVENANCE
Miss Gibbs, Clifton House, Datchet; her Bequest, 1951.⁴⁵

RERENCES
Not in Cat. 1953; Murray 1980a, p. 304 (A. van Ostade); Beresford 1998, p. 176 (after Ostade); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 149; RKD, no. 286253: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/286253 (Sept. 24, 2017).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Four-member oak panel with horizontal grain. The clouds and sky are thickly painted and there is slight impasto in the trees and clothing; elsewhere the paint is thinly applied. A bold underdrawing executed with a brush is visible with infrared; mostly this corresponds closely to the final image. The panel has a slight convex warp. The panel is in sound condition overall. There is a groove cut into the sides, and some small headless nails in the edges. The paint and ground layers on the central member are not stable and tend to blister. Previous recorded treatment: 1873, cleaned ‘by Mr John Nathan’s new mode of restoring without friction’ (from a label on the reverse); 1988, cleaned, locally consolidated, restored, Courtauld Institute of Art; 2007, blisters consolidated, S. Plender.

RELATED WORKS
1a) Prime version: Adriaan van Ostade, Peasants at an Inn, signed and dated AV ostade / 1676, panel, 38.5 x 32.5 cm. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel, GK 277 [6].⁴⁶
1b) Same orientation as no. 1a: Adriaen van Ostade, Peasants at an Inn, signed and dated A v Ostade 1676, brush and watercolour, 262 x 220 mm. Petit Palais, Dutuit Collection, Paris.⁴⁷
1c) After a picture or drawing then in the collection of Antoine Poullain (perhaps 1b), in reverse (same orientation as DPG619): Joseph de Longueil, Peasants at an Inn, inscriptions (Adrien van Ostade pinx.; De Longueil Sculp.; and Du Cabinet de Mr. Poullain), etching, 205 x 173 mm (Basan 1781, no. 67). BM, London, 1853,1008.387 [7].⁴⁸
1d) After no. 1a, same orientation as 1a: Alexis Chataignier and Edme Bovinet, Un Estaminet (A Tavern), inscriptions, c. 1810, engraving and etching, 167 (trimmed) x 139 mm. BM, London, 1856,0308.916 [8].⁴⁹
1e) Tapestry copy of the central scene. Kinnaird collection, Cullen.⁵⁰

DPG619 depicts a group of peasants seated under a trellis at a table outside an inn. It seems to be a crude and simplified 18th-century copy in reverse of Ostade’s prime version, Peasants at an Inn of 1676 in Kassel (Related works, no. 1a) [6]. There is also a drawing by Ostade in the Dutuit Collection, Paris, which has the same orientation as the Kassel picture and was made in the same year (Related works, no. 1b).

DPG619
after Joseph de Longueil after Adriaen van Ostade
Peasants drinking, ca. 1780-1800
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG619

6
Adriaen van Ostade
Peasants in front of a tavern, smoking and playing cards, 1676 (dated)
Kassel, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, inv./cat.nr. GK277

As DPG619 is in reverse, its most likely source is an engraving made by Joseph de Longueil (1730–92) of the Ostade original when it was in the collection of Antoine Poullain (?–1780), Receveur Général des Domaines du Roi, presumably before the posthumous sale of his pictures in 1780, and published in a book of prints after his collection in 1781 (Related works, no. 1c) [7]. According to this book the print was made after a watercolour, although the inscription says that Ostade painted the model.⁵¹ As DPG619 omits two groups of figures in the background of both the original and the Longueil print, that raises the possibility that it was copied from some other related source or a lost original. It is unlikely that it was based on the print entitled Un Estaminet made when the Kassel picture was in the Musée Napoléon (Related works, no. 4), as the image there is the other way round.