Killing the calf

Details

ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE (HAARLEM 1610–1685 HAARLEM)
Killing the calf
signed and dated 'Av Ostade 1639' (lower right)
oil on panel
14 x 16 ½ in. (35.5 x 42 cm.)

Provenance

(Possibly) Antoine Poullain (d. 1780), Receveur général des Domaines du Roi, Paris; his deceased sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 17 March 1780 (=3rd day), lot 49 (1,070 FF to Langlier), as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Jean-Corneille Landgraff (d. after 1790), Paris; his sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 21 December 1784, lot 89, (899 FF), as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Jean-Benjamin de Laborde (1734–1794), Paris; his sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 14 June 1784, lot 44 (800 FF to Paillet), as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Jean Dubois (active 1768-1789), Paris; his sale, Lebrun Julliot fils, Paris, 20 December 1785, lot 47 (to Constantin), as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Chevalier John Lambert (1728–1799) and M. Du Porail, Paris; their sale, Lebrun, Paris, 27 March 1787, lot 67 (4,000 FF to Lebrun), as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Anonymous sale; Amsterdam, 13 July 1799 (fl. 37½ to J. Yver), lot 159, as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Jean-Louis Laneuville (1748–1826), Paris; his sale, JB.P. Le Brun, Paris, 6 November 1811, lot 67 (to Constantin), as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) Comte Auguste-Charles-Joseph de Flahault de la Billarderie (1785–1870), Paris and London, and by descent to the following,
Alexander Edward Hamilton Digby (A.E.H. Digby); his deceased sale, Sotheby’s, London, 20 June 1951, lot 27, where acquired by the below,
with W. Katz, London, until at least 1953.
Acquired by the present owner, circa 2023.

Literature

(Possibly) C. Blanc, Le trésor de la curiosité, II, Paris, 1858, pp. 106, 113, 284, as 'Isack van Ostade'.
(Possibly) C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, III, London, 1910, p. 265, no. 413a, as 'Adriaen van Ostade', and p. 480, no. 143, as 'Isack van Ostade'.
The Burlington Magazine, December 1953, pl. XIV, illustrated.

Engraved

François Basan, 1781.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Taylor Alessio Junior Specialist, Head of Part II

talessio@christies.com +1 212 636 2295

Lot Essay

Signed and dated 1639, this panel exemplifies the vigorous style and realism of Adriaen van Ostade’s early maturity. Its dramatic lighting, vivid characterization, and compelling narrative typify the artist’s distinctive approach to genre painting.

This painting is likely identifiable with the work cited by Charles Blanc and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot under an erroneous attribution to Isack van Ostade (C. Blanc, op. cit.; C. Hofstede de Groot, op. cit.). The confusion appears to stem from an engraving by François Basan listing the work as by Isack. However, details in the engraving, notably the positioning of the figures and the distinctive horns of the calf, align precisely with the present painting and differ significantly from Isack’s known variant (sold Dorotheum, Vienna, 12 October 2011, lot 720).

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