Peasant with a crooked back

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, he depicted scenes of peasants engaged in debauchery using Rembrandt's forceful chiaroscuro. Later, Van Ostade portrayed calmer, more respectable people in comfortable interiors with carefully structured spaces and picturesque clutter. By then, both he and Holland 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 etcher 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.

The Peasant with a crooked back is, economically and effectively, what the title says. The peasant turns ever so slightly in the direction of the viewer; his expression appears sardonic. Is this an ultimately compassionate view of the peasantry, or is does it make him an object of ridicule? The reissue of this print as an engraving in a songbook of 1716 with a text below it definitely suggests the latter. There is a related coloured drawing by Van Ostade, of which this etching is a reverse view, in the British Museum (Oo,10.159).

See:

Art Gallery of New South Wales, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6724.39/

British Museum Collection online, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=710690&partId=1

The J. Paul Getty Museum, http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/460/adriaen-van-ostade-dutch-1610-1685/

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art        July 2017