Physical description
A fiddler wearing a tall hat and rags plays his instrument to a captive audience of peasants young and old in a dark interior, illuminiated by a beam of light entering through the door at left.
Place of Origin
Haarlem, Holland (painted)
Date
1636 (painted)
Artist/maker
Ostade, Adriaen van, born 1610 - died 1685 (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
Oil on oak panel
Marks and inscriptions
'AV [monogram] Ostade 16 (36?)'
Dimensions
Height: 14.6 cm estimate, Width: 11.1 cm estimate
Object history note
Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, 1868
[Chauncy Hare Townshend]
Ref : Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860. Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990. p.xix.
'Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868) was born into a wealthy family, only son of Henry Hare Townsend of Busbridge Hall, Godalming, Surrey. Educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA 1821). Succeeded to the family estates 1827, when he added 'h' to the Townsend name. He had taken holy orders, but while he always referred to himself as 'Rev.' on the title pages of his books, he never practised his vocation... . Very much a dilettante in the eighteenth-century sense, he moved in the highest social and literary circles; a great friend of Charles Dickens (he was the dedicatee of Great Expectations) with whom he shared a fascination of mesmerism... Bulwer Lytton described his life's 'Beau-deal of happiness' as 'elegant rest, travel, lots of money - and he is always ill and melancholy'. Of the many watercolours and British and continental oil paintings he bequeathed to the V&A, the majority are landscapes. He is the first identifiable British collector of early photographs apart from the Prince Consort, particularly landscape photography, and also collected gems and geological specimens.'
Historical significance: Painter, draughtsman and etcher, Adriaen van Ostade was probably a pupil (together with Adriaen Brouwer) of Frans Hals in Haarlem. Hals influenced him very little, whereas Brouwer, had a decisive influence on the evolution of van Ostade’s idiosyncratic portrayals of peasant life. Most of van Ostade's paintings are signed and dated. 1367-1869 is among a number van Ostade's domestic scenes (e.g. Peasant Interior, before 1633, ex-P. de Boer priv. col., Amsterdam, and Village Alehouse with Four Figures, 1635, Salzburg, Residenzgal., hdg 584) in which figures and space blend in an atmospheric treatment of light. The blue-grey tonality is characteristic of Adriaen's earlier works which later shift to a palette of warmer green-browns. The surface of 1367-1869 is quite damaged but a sense of the original mood and of the appearance of the little girl at centre is suggested by a another painting of an itinerant musician attributed to van Ostade and dated 1655 (repr. Hofstede de Groot, no. 440) and is comparable in format and subject matter to Fiddler at the door of a house in the Fitzwilliam Museum of 1639. Adriaen van Ostade’s peasants are mostly shown relishing the small pleasures permitted by their modest existence, the simplicity of peasant life is held up as a model (Vivitur parvo bene: ‘One may live well on little’) or even idealized, in the manner of bucolic poetry.
Historical context note
This work is typical of Genre Painting, a style which represented the lower or peasant classes of society, became increasingly popular throughout the 17th century in the Netherlands. These pictures usually depict scenes of everyday life, set in domestic interiors or in the open countryside. Some bear metaphorical meaning or implied messages, but others may just be intended as representations of daily events. In both cases they are associated with health, pleasure and liberty. The leading figures of the Haarlem school in this field were Adriaen Brouwer (1606-1638) and Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685).
Descriptive line
Oil painting, 'The Fiddler', Adriaen van Ostade, 1636
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 207-208 cat. no. 258.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Adriaen van OSTADE (1610-85)
Dutch School
Adriaen van Ostade, the elder brother of Isack, was born in Haarlem, where he spent most of his life, in 1610. According to Houbraken he was a pupil of Hals at the same time as Adriaen Brouwer (c. 1626-27) but there is no other evidence for this. He entered the Haarlem guild in 1634, and became its dean in 1662. Influenced by Brouwer, and from 1640, by Rembrandt's chiaroscuro, he painted mainly peasant genre scenes, of which he also made some fifty etchings.
258
THE FIDDLER
Signed and dated AV (monogram)
Ostade 16(36?)
Oak panel
Oval 5 ¾ X 4 3/8 (14.6 X 11.1)
Townshend Bequest
1367-1869
This picture has always been known as Adriaen van Ostade (1893 Catalogue, p. 183) but, as it had been made up into a rectangular shape and heavily overpainted, it was hardly recognizable as a genuine work and was omitted from Hofstede de Groot's list of Ostade's paintings (iii, 1910). The true quality of the picture and the signature and date only became apparent when it was cleaned. The figures could be read as 1635 or 6 or 1675 or 6, but a date in the late 1630s fits extremely well stylistically. There are several similar compositions dated 1637 and 1638 and the greyish tones fit with the period before 1640, when, under Rembrandt's influence, grey is supplanted by brown as Ostade's dominant tone. The signature is also typical of the earlier years.
Condition. Cleaned in 1960 and restored to its oval shape.
Prov. The Rev. C. H. Townshend; bequeathed to the Museum in 1868.
Production Note
This picture has always been known as Adriaen van Ostade (1893 Catalogue, p. 183) but was at some point made into a rectangular shape and heavily overpainted. At that time, it was hardly recognizable as a genuine work and was omitted from Hofstede de Groot's list of Ostade's paintings (iii, 1910) but was restored to the artist when the signature and date were revealed during cleaning in 1960.
Materials
Oil paint; Oak
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Musicians; Fiddles
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
