The wandering musicians

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 chiaroscuro. Later, he portrayed calmer, more respectable people in comfortable interiors with carefully structured spaces and picturesque clutter. By then, both he and the Netherlands had become more prosperous. An extremely prolific artist, Van Ostade produced hundreds of paintings; over 800 survive. He also painted portraits and still lifes and added figures to paintings by Pieter Saenredam, Jacob van Ruisdael, and others. Van Ostade's watercolors, about half of which were made after 1670, were attempts to duplicate the effect of his oil paintings through watercolor and were in much demand. His students included his considerably younger brother Isaack and Jan Steen.  

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