Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade, Dutch 1610-1685- A Peasant man, turned to the right, wearing a cap and and holding a jug; oil on panel, bears wax seal on the reverse, 18.2 x 15.6 cm. Provenance: [Traditionally] Collection of J. Danser Nijman, Amsterdam...

Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade,

Dutch 1610-1685-

A Peasant man, turned to the right, wearing a cap and and holding a jug;

oil on panel, bears wax seal on the reverse, 18.2 x 15.6 cm.

Provenance: [Traditionally] Collection of J. Danser Nijman, Amsterdam, 1797.; [Traditionally] Their sale, Amsterdam, 16 August 1797, lot 396.; Private Collection, UK.; With Alfred Brod Gallery, London.; Private Collection, UK, since 1967.; By descent.

Literature: [Traditionally] Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, ‘A Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century’, Vol.III, London, 1910, p.188, no.159a, as 'A Peasant with a Jug' (and ‘signed in full’).

Note: This intimate depiction of a peasant man belongs with a small group of studies of single figure peasants executed by Adriaen van Ostade in the 1640s. These were intended not as portraits but as studies of physical types and expression and should be viewed in the context of sixteenth-century comic low-life traditions and strongly caricatured peasant types, in particular the bust-length studies by Pieter Breueghel the Elder (c.1525-1569). Overall, in its subject matter and restrained palette, the present work further recalls the works of Adriaen Brouwer (1605/6-1638), the heir of Bruegelian peasant art, who had a strong influence on the young Ostade. Ostade's tender treatment of his subject, however, marks an altogether novel approach. This has been noted by Peter Sutton who has observed, with reference to another small-scale study of a peasant: 'Ostade offers a sensitive image of the lined face of a farmer, without ridicule or condescension. Such empathy for the lower classes was new.' (P. Sutton, catalogue of the Collection of Willem Baron van Dedem, 2002, p.180, under no.38).

In this striking work, the head and shoulders of a man turned to the right are viewed against a grey background. He has short brown hair and a beard, wears a blue-grey coat and cap, and holds an earthenware jug. Ostade’s ability to capture the expression of the peasant so accurately with such a limited palette and a few cursory brushstrokes is evidence of his effortless skill, even at this relatively early stage in his career.

We are grateful to Dr Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution of the present lot and for suggesting a date of the second half of the 1640s.
Held in an early 18th-century English frame. Please refer to department for condition report