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Overview
Adriaen van Ostade (1610-85) was a major Dutch Golden Age artist. He probably trained in Frans Hals's Haarlem workshop, where the subject matter of fellow student Adriaen Brouwer, master of delicately painted boors carousing, determined Van Ostade's own themes. In his early work, Van Ostade depicted scenes of peasants engaged in debauchery using Rembrandt's forceful
After Rembrandt, Van Ostade was the major Dutch printmaker of his day, producing 50 recorded etchings, and is well represented in Te Papa's collection. His prints were highly regarded by his contemporaries and remained enduringly popular long after his death and went through a number of editions.
Although this etching is commonly known as The wandering musicians, only one of the group, a man playing a wind instrument, answers this description. He has attracted assorted rustic company from the neighbourhood, the majority - like The Quack (Te Papa 1869-0001-369) - being children. Will the man with the jug or the people peering through the half-open door give him a coin or two? This impression is from either the fifth or sixth (and final) state, and was donated to the National Art Gallery by the widow of London art dealer Harold Wright in 1965.
See: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 'Adriaen van Ostade', http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/460/adriaen-van-ostade-dutch-1610-1685/
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art March 2019