Page of Tavern Interior by OSTADE, Adriaen Jansz. van in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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Tavern Interior

1680
Watercolour on paper, 228 x 203 mm
Muses Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

More than 400 drawings have survived from the hand of Adriaen van Ostade, the single most important 17th century painter of Dutch peasant life. The majority of these are chalk or ink sketches, conceived either as drafts for his many paintings and etchings, or as independent works of art. In the final years of his life, Van Ostade also produced superbly finished water-colours on paper. These he composed in the form of preparatory studies, which he then scored through, with a sharp object, onto a sheet of paper of the same size, on which he then produced the water-colour. Such a pre-study also exists of the Tavern Interior, which is one of this group of water-colours. Unlike in his early works, which focus on the excesses of peasant life, Van Ostade's views the rural population with a more indulgent eye. As in earlier years, his peasants drink, smoke and play cards, but now in an atmosphere of civilised calm. Visibly these "late" drawings of peasants were intended in the first place to amuse the viewer, and are devoid of moralising content.

This development in Van Ostade's art parallels a shift in the mentality of city-dwellers, who from 1650 onwards began to view rural populations in a more positive and at times idealising light. Not only did the artist's vision change, but his unpolished drawing style makes way for a more disciplined and descriptive hand. This led to a more precise reproduction of the scenes depicted and a greater attention to all kind of anecdotal details, like the wicker basket hanging from the wooden ceiling beam or the wine jug in the left-hand foreground. In addition to this he made highly subtle use of water-colours and gouache, perfecting a technique that Hendrick Avercamp had already introduced. In his Tavern Interior Van Ostade placed fine touches of gouache on top of the water-colour layer, producing delicate, subdued colours and a picturesque modelling. Contemporary collectors prized this type of coloured drawing as much as they did small paintings, and paid high prices for them.