ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE
in Peasant Festival on a
Town Street
Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and gouache; H: 20.2 cm
( 8 in.); W: 31.5 cm (i2Vs in.)
8s.GC.439MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At left on board, signed
and dated Av. ostade. 1674 in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: J. Witsen, Amsterdam (sale, Terwen and
de Bosch, Amsterdam, August 16, 1790, Konstboek C,
lot i); Sir Francis Cook, Richmond; by descent; Mr. and
Mrs. F. A. Drey, London; Mr. and Mrs. R. E. A. Drey,
London; Robert Smith, Washington, D.C.; art market,
New York.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. O. Kronig, Catalogue of the Paintings at
Doughty House and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Fred-
erick Cook (London, 1914), vol. 2, no. 306; B. Schnack-
enburg, Adriaen van Ostade, Isack van Ostade: Zeichnungen
und Aquarelle (Hamburg, 1981), vols. i, p. 131, no. 252;
2 , fig. 252.
THIS IS ONE OF A GROUP OF WATERCOLORS OF PEASANT
scenes by van Ostade which date from the mid-1670 s. A
preparatory study in pen for the central and right middle-
ground sections of the watercolor is in the Albertina, Vi-
enna (inv. 23497; Schnackenburg 1981, vol. i, no. 253).
This and related watercolors were made as independent
works, which must have been sold as if they were small
paintings. They also have many figural and composi-
tional details in common, so that the smoker seen from
behind and the man with his leg extended in the fore-
ground reappear in several other watercolors of this type,
as do the principal figure groups and the diagonally dis-
posed spatial organization. Though they contain color-
istic and painterly characteristics, these watercolors de-
rive their animated quality from their vivid pen strokes.250 DUTCH SCHOOL • A. VAN OSTADE