A study of a peasant smoking a pipe

Details

Adriaen van Ostade (Haarlem 1610-1685)
A study of a peasant smoking a pipe
signed and dated 'AVOstade 1637.' (AV linked, centre right)
oil on panel
15.1 x 13.7 cm.

Provenance

with F. Kleinberger, Paris.
Baron Lansberg, Paris; sale Paris (?).
Baron August Janssen, Brussels, 1910; Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 26 April 1927, lot 85 (Dfl. 500).
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, by 1927.
Looted by the Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1948.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

Literature

C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart/Paris, 1907-28, III, no. 172.
W. Martin, Catalogue de la Collection de peintures du Baron Janssen, Brussels, 1923, p. 126, no. 85.
C. Wright, Paintings in Dutch Museums. An Index of Oil Paintings in Public Collections in The Netherlands by Artists born before 1870, London, 1980, p. 355. Old Master Paintings: An illustrated summary catalogue, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst (The Netherlandish Office for the Fine Arts), The Hague, 1992, p. 232, no. 1998, illustrated.

Exhibited

Rotterdam, Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, Catalogue de la Collection Goudstikker d'Amsterdam, 11-26 June 1927, no. 52.
Amsterdam, Catalogue des Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, October-November 1927, no. 98.

Special notice

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,001. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

Lot Essay

We are grateful to Dr. Hiltraud Doll for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original (verbal communication, 27 September 2007). She dates the picture to circa 1636.

We are also grateful to Professor Schnackenburg for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph (written communication, 3 September).

Van Ostade recalls his teacher Adriaen Brouwer in this vibrant study. Van Ostade was well known for such studies of which two (one dated 1642) can be found in the Boijmans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam and one (c. 1646) in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Professor Schnackenburg believes this panel to be an early sketch, datable to circa 1637 and relates it to the artist's pen sketches.

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