Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade was a painter and etcher of scenes of peasant life. He was very prolific; more than 800 of his pictures are known, and many etchings. His works were much collected in the 18th century.
Van Ostade was born at Haarlem and probably trained by Frans Hals. More important for him than Hals was the influence of the Flemish painter, Adriaen Brouwer, who may have been a pupil of Hals around 1620/1. Van Ostade was a member of the Haarlem guild of painters in 1647 and 1661, and Dean of the guild in 1662. From about 1640 the influence of Rembrandt is detectable in the use of light and shade in his paintings.
His work influenced the scenes of peasant life painted by his short-lived younger brother, Isack, who was also a landscape painter, and the peasant scenes of Jan Steen.
Adriaen van Ostade
1610 - 1685
Paintings by Adriaen van Ostade
In this tender little scene, Adriaen van Ostade shows an elderly peasant with his hand on that of a woman about his age. He leans towards her, his other hand holding a tall, full beer glass – perhaps denoting his desire for her. Her hand is on a long unbroken clay pipe – in Dutch art of the time...
Not on display
In this exuberant painting of a peasant, Adriaen van Ostade shows his ability to portray the human condition. We sense the giddiness of the drunken peasant as he sweeps backwards, jug open to drink straight from its neck. His mouth is gaping and his eyes are watery and unfocused, but he’s happy.V...
Not on display
A man stoops over a fireplace, using bellows to stoke the fire that heats the contents of a pot standing in the flames. He is an alchemist in the process of trying to turn base metals into silver or gold. His shabby and chaotic surroundings suggest that he is so obsessed with his work that he has...
Adriaen van Ostade specialised in painting dimly lit rooms, often belonging to an inn, peopled by ‘low-life’ characters, their features and poses grotesquely caricatured. In some, battered furniture and broken crockery suggest the bar-room brawls that van Ostade also sometimes portrayed.The room...
After Adriaen van Ostade
Scenes of the everyday life of peasants and tradesmen were popular among art buyers in seventeenth-century Holland. Often they were humorous, perhaps even mocking, in tone. This tiny picture, little bigger than a piece of A5 paper, is more sentimental, emphasising the cobbler’s diligence. He repa...
Not on display