p. 91-95 Gerard Dov, A. van Ostade
91 GERARD DOV.
Hoet calls this painter, whom he calls Grasbeck, a Companion Painter or painter of conversations (Gezelschapschilder) in his remarks on Van Gool.1 The same term is used in old auction catalogs for Gaesbeeck, in relation to his small paintings (in the vein of Dov and Slingeland), which fetched considerable prices at the time. Nowadays they are almost impossible to find, which is not a pity. I know of only one other painting by him, also signed A. van Gaesbeeck f., in the Berlin Museum (no. 1021) [135].2
Rembrandt's great school ran out on this poor little miniature painter, after the skillful Gerard Dov, the fine Mieris, the lean Schalcken and the scrupulous Slingeland. What a contrast between Rembrandt and Gaesbeeck, the two extremes of painting!
The style of almost all the masters has thus been corrupted from fall to fall by a succession of illegitimate descendants, the last of whom are nothing more than blind industrialists. Did not Raphael also have an illegitimate descendant – Sassoferrato!
Rembrandt's influence, however, indirectly contributed to the training of other good artists, who, without having been his pupils, have something, ...
------
...Gerard Dov and Slingeland. This painting brought 41 guilders at W.F. Taalman Kip's auction in 1801. That is more than it is worth.3
135
Adriaen van Gaesbeeck
A young woman sewing in an interior
Berlin (city, Germany), Gemäldegalerie (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
92 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.
... not from his style, which is unique, but from his practice.
A. VAN OSTADE. – Adriaan van Ostade is actually a little Rembrandt. He is more like this master than Gerard Dov himself.
There is no doubt that Rembrandt's genius is infinitely superior to that of all his compatriots; Adriaan van Ostade did not adopt Rembrandt's qualities as an original poet and profound thinker, but he did adopt his painting technique. Some of Rembrandt's qualities Ostade transferred to his own mundane and simple subjects, which are quite different from Rembrandt's: the transparency of the shadows, which is largely the result of the way he paints the backgrounds in light brushstrokes; the general harmony, which results from a dominant (as we would say in music), running over the various notes and ensuring their harmony. His color range is often the same as Rembrandt's, in a red tone that is gilded with luminous accents.
An excellent painter, this Van Ostade, and technically one of the most perfect of the Dutch school. The cleverest critics would not know what to attack in his painting, – except for his subjects. But really, for everything there is a time. Catholic Italy produced gods and heroes. Let Holland produce ordinary men and gypsies for us. Isn't Molière's Sganarelle as good as Racine's Agamemnon?
93 VAN OSTADE.
One of the two paintings by Van Ostade in the Amsterdam museum is Interior of His Studio (no. 205), in which he depicts himself seated at his easel, engaged in painting a beautiful Ostade scene [136].4 Unfortunately, we see only his back and his face in lost profile. He did not consider showing us his good, honest, and jovial physiognomy, but he has positioned himself so that he gets the bright light coming from the left through a large window onto his canvas. He wears a blood-red beret and a purple doublet with silver sheen. One of his pupils prepares a palette in the semi-darkness and another rubs the colors.5 The Dutch often manufactured their colors themselves, and it is partly to this, that their paintings owe their preservation. In front of the rubbing apprentice is a small black dog. Scattered here and there are various studio bibelots. But almost all these details are drowned in chiaroscuro, the light reserved for the main figure so busy at work.
On a table to the left of the window was a signature, which is indecipherable today.6 The panel is only 1 foot 1 inch wide and 1 foot 4 inches high.7
Van Ostade himself etched this composition [137],8 of which the Dresden Museum (no. 1218) possesses a duplicate [138].9 Descamps mentions that one of these two paintings was in Mr. Bouxière's collection at the time.10 The Amsterdam painting comes, ...11
136
Adriaen van Ostade
Painter in his studio, c. 1647-1650
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-298
137
Adriaen van Ostade
The painter, c. 1645-1649
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-OB-12.712
138
Adriaen van Ostade
The painter in his studio, dated 1663
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv./cat.nr. 1397
139
Adriaen van Ostade
Travellers at rest, 1671 (dated)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-299
94 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.
... I think, from the Pourtales auction in 1826, where it fetched £105, having cost 2,901 francs at the Grandpré auction in 1809.12 This is not expensive for a masterpiece (1).
The second Van Ostade is titled: Peasant Company (no. 204). The same format as the previous one. It is fortunately signed and dated: A. Ostade. 1671 [139].13 The painter was already sixty-one years old by then, but this is hardly noticeable. The brushstroke is always light and firm at the same time. Much later, the old master was still producing irreproachable paintings.
In the courtyard of an inn, sitting on a bench in the shade of trees, two men are chatting: the man on the right, seen in profile and holding his pipe in his hand, is a hunter whose rifle and hunting bag lie nearby; he has a dove-colored hat, a reddish jacket and azure pants, the colors of a shepherd. His partner, for ease of listening, has put away his gray hat, his backpack14 and his pipe, like trophies on a step in front of it; but he has not put the pitcher he holds in his hand there. Between them stands the hostess, frontally, leaning ...
------
(1) The new cat. does not mention these provenances, citing only the Van der Pot auction, with the price of 600 guilders. He gives as its signature the two initials A O. As the title of the painting he simply mentions: An Artist's Workshop, with an unknown painter, no doubt because we do not see enough of the figure to recognize Ostade. But tradition has it that this is the portrait of Ostade himself.
95 VAN OSTADE.
... on the back of the bench. Behind her the house and to the left, out in the open, five or six small figures drinking.
"Excellent picture," Smith said.15 But however there are others, much better, at the museum in The Hague and in private collections.
Isack, like his brother, has only two paintings in the Amsterdam museum, both of which are very good: A laughing peasant, his beer pot in hand; signed: Isack van Ostade [140];16 – and Travelers halted at the door of a village tavern; from the auctions of Fouquet and Van der Pot [141].17
After the Van Ostades, we should add Adriaan's pupils Cornelis Bega and Cornelis Dusart. The latter has three paintings: a Fish Market, praised by Immerzeel;18 signed and dated 1653, which fetched fl. 1,665 at the auction Van der Pot [142];19 – a Village View,20 and a Courtyard of a Farmers Inn, with many small figures.21 Bega, two paintings: an Old Man, sitting in his Study, a rather drab painting, trying to imitate Gerard Dov;22 and a Peasant Company, a first-rate work by the master, and signed: C, bega (sic) [143].23
Here again I will mention a few secondary artists, but not without talent, who dealt with subjects similar to those of the Ostades.
I need not say anything about Adriaan van Ostade's fellow pupil at Frans Hals, – Brouwer,24 because the two paintings attributed to him, which Immerzeel ...
140
Adriaen van Ostade
The merry peasant, c. 1646
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-302
141
Isack van Ostade
Inn with a horse at the trough, dated 1643
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-303
142
Cornelis Dusart
Fish market, 1683 (dated)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. Sk-A-98
143
Cornelis Bega
Peasants making music and dancing in a inn, 1650-1664
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-24
Notes
2 Adriaen van Gaesbeeck, Young Woman Sewing in an Interior, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
3 There was no auction Taalman Kip, but the painting was bought directly from W.F. Taelman Kip in 1801, Grijzenhout 1985, p. 57, no. 30.
4 Adriaen van Ostade, The Painter's Studio, c. 1647-1650, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-298; Smith 1829-1842, vol. 9 (1842), p. 100, no. 69; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 21, no. 205, Ostade (Adriaan van; 1610-1685), Een Kunstschilders-Werkplaats (An Artist's Workshop) (tax. fl. 6,000); Amsterdam 1858, p. 102-103, no. 227.
5 According to Smith 1829-1842, vol. 9 (1842), p. 100, no. 69 and Bikker 2022a, the person preparing the palette is not a boy but an older man, 'who is more likely to be an assistant, possibly a master painter who could not afford a studio of his own or was not inclined to establish one because of a lack of substantial talent'.
6 According to the facsimile in Amsterdam 1858, p. 102-103, no. 227, the signature reads 'A. o.'. This is apparently no longer visible, as it is not mentioned in Bikker 2022a.
7 This is approximately 33 x 40,6 cm. The dimensions given in the most recent source are 36,5 x 34,5 cm.
8 Adriaen van Ostade, Painter in his Workshop, c. 1645-1649, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-P-OB-12.
9 Adriaen van Ostade, The Painter in his Studio, 1663, Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden – Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. no. 1397; Smith 1829-1842, vol. 1 (1829), p. 167, no. 211.
10 This is taken directly from Smith 1829-1842, vol. 1 (1829), 145, no. 136, which in turn refers to Descamps 1753-1764, vol. 2 (1754), p. 176. M. Bouxière is the Parisian collector Jean Gaillard de la Bouexière. In the entry under no. 136, Smith mentions two further paintings by Ostade depicting a painter’s studio: the one in the Rijksmuseum, and the one in Dresden, both cited above. In addition, Smith mixes up the provenances of no. 136 and the Dresden variant, as the latter was most probably owned by Bouexière prior to 1754. According to Bikker, there are now only two extant paintings by Ostade depicting a painter's studio: the on in the Rijksmuseum and the one in Dresden (Bikker 2022a). What happened to the Ostade painting from the Pourtalès auction is not known, but the composition has been handed down to us via the print by Ostade cited above.
11 In the margin is added 'de la Bouexière', in pencil and not in Thoré-Bürger’s handwriting.
12 Here, Thoré-Bürger incorrectly suggests that the Rijksmuseum painting came from the 1826 Pourtalès auction, whilst in fact it had been purchased at the Van der Pot sale in 1808 for the Royal Museum of Louis Napoleon.
13 Adriaen van Ostade, Travellers at Rest, 1671, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-299; Smith 1829-1842, vol. 1 (1829), p. 165, no. 206; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 21, no. 204, Ostade (Adriaan van), Een Boeren-Gezelschap (A Peasant Companion) (tax. fl. 8,000); Amsterdam 1858, p. 103, no. 228.
14 The backpack is rather a box with a strap, indicating that the owner was an itinerant salesman (Bikker 2022b). According to Amsterdam 1858, p. 105, no. 228, it is a 'square leather valise'.
15 Smith 1829-1842, vol. 1 (1829), p. 165, no. 206; vol. 9 (1842), p. 110, no. 106.
16 Adriaen van Ostade, The Merry Peasant, c. 1646, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-302; Smith 1829-1842, vol. 1 (1829), p. 197, no. 67, as by Isaac van Ostade; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 21, no. 207, Ostade (Isaak van), Een lagchende Boer (A laughing Peasant) (tax. fl. 300); Amsterdam 1858, p. 104, no. 230, as by Isaac van Ostade, sold at the 1801 auction of P. Fouquet. This latter piece of provenance seems to be a figment of the author’s imagination, as the painting does not match with the description of the Van Ostade painting in the 1801 sale (sale Amsterdam, 13-14 April 1801, lot 56: ‘Two pieces, a Farmer lighting his pipe, and a Female holding a jug and glass in her hands (…).’ (Twee stuks, een Boer welke zijn pyp opsteekt, en een Vrouwtje dat een kan en glas in de hand heeft (…)'. Moreover, according to Moes/Van Biema 1909, p. 182, Van der Pot acquired this painting already in 1782.
17 Isaac van Ostade, Country Inn with a Horse at the Trough, 1643, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-303; Smith 1829-1842,vol. 1 (1829), p. 197, no. 68; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 21, no. 206, Ostade (Isaak van), Eene Boerenherberg met reizigers (A Farmers' inn with travelers) (tax.: fl. 1,000); Amsterdam 1858, p. 104, no. 229.
18 Immerzeel 1842-1843, vol. 1 (1842), p. 207.
19 Cornelis Dusart, Fish Market, 1683, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-98; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 9, no. 72, Dusart (Cornelis; 1665-1704), Eene Vischmarkt (A Fish market) (tax.: fl. 5,000 or fl. 6,000?, not clearly legible]; Amsterdam 1858, p. 34, no. 75. It must be an oversight or a typo that Thoré-Bürger 1653 as the date of the painting, as it was common knowledge (and to be read for example in Aanwijzing 1853 and Amsterdam 1858, which even transcribes the date as 1683) that Dusart was not yet born in 1653. Immerzeel also writes in so many words that it says 1683 on the painting, Immerzeel 1842-1843, vol. 3 (1843), p. 49.
20 Cornelis Dusart, Street Musicians, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-97; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 9, no. 74, Dusart (Cornelis), Een Dorpsgezigt (A village view) (tax.: fl 3,000? not clearly legible); Amsterdam 1858, p. 33-34, no. 74, as having been sold at the 1814 sale of the Wessels Reijers collection in Amsterdam and subsequently ‘originating from the Royal Museum’. However, there was no Royal Museum after the departure of Louis Napoleon in 1810. Perhaps the author means that it first hung in the Royal Palace before being transported to the Rijksmuseum in the Trippenhuis in 1817? The painting appears to have been purchased directly from Jeronimo de Vries for fl. 525, who had acquired it at the auction of Wessels Rijers (Lugt 8584) for fl. 321.
21 Cornelis Dusart, Country Inn, 1690, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-100; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 9, no. 73, Dusart (Cornelis), De Binnenplaats van een Boerenherberg (The Courtyard of a Farmers' Inn) (tax.: fl. 1,500); Amsterdam 1858, p. 34-35, no. 76, as incorrectly coming from the Van Heteren Gevers collection. The painting is first mentioned on 2 august 1808, when it was received at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam from The Hague (Moes/Van Biema 1909, p. 116, no. 8). It is unknown how it was acquired.
22 Attributed to Willem de Poorter, A Scholar in his Study, c. 1642-1650, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-23; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 5, no. 16, Bega (Cornelis), Een oud Man, zittende in een studeervertrek (An Old Man, Sitting in a Study) (tax.: fl. 2,000); Amsterdam 1858, p. 7-8, no. 16, as by Cornelis Bega.
23 Cornelis Bega, Peasants making Music and Dancing, c. 1650-1664, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-24; Aanwijzing 1853, p. 5, no. 17, Bega (Cornelis), Een Boeren-Gezelschap (A Peasant Company) (tax.: fl. 1,500); Amsterdam 1858, p. 8, no. 17.
24 See also the notes by Thoré-Bürger opp. p. 96 (1/2).