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Adriaen van Ostade, 'A Peasant holding a Jug and a Pipe', about 1650-5

About the work

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.

Van Ostade has displayed different textures with almost tangible reality: the glossy, weighty earthenware jug; the flesh of the hand; the creases in the sleeve and the fur collar above. Hair peeps out from the leather cap beneath the tall felt hat. The face itself is not just caricature, but seemingly flesh and blood – the slack mouth, the taut red skin of the swollen nose, the sunken, wrinkled eyes and cheeks, and the protruding Adam’s apple. He may be an entertaining, nameless character, but he’s a real person with whom we can engage.

Key facts

Full title
A Peasant holding a Jug and a Pipe
Artist
Adriaen van Ostade
Artist dates
1610 - 1685
Date made
about 1650-5
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
26.8 × 22 cm
Inscription summary
Signed
Acquisition credit
Salting Bequest, 1910
Inventory number
NG2543
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Adriaen van Ostade

A Peasant courting an Elderly Woman
A Peasant courting an Elderly Woman
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
An Alchemist
An Alchemist
Adriaen van Ostade
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...
Room 23
The Interior of an Inn
The Interior of an Inn
Adriaen van Ostade
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...
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A Cobbler
A Cobbler
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