Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade,

Dutch 1610-1685-

A Peasant man wearing a cap 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: We are grateful to Dr Bernhard Schnackenburg and Dr Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution of the present lot.

This intimate depiction of a peasant man relates to 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 earlier 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 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 Ostades paintings with single figures, including the present work, the artist often employed a broad and thick manner of painting, very much also recalling the loosely rendered tronies executed in the 1630s by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) and Jan Lievens (1607-1674). 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. Ostades 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. For comparison, see the artists similarly sized Head of a Laughing Peasant at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen [no.1642], conceived in 1646. The present work can be dated a little later, to around 1650.