The quack.

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.

In this etching, a quack doctor is selling his medicines in a tent, probably part of a village fair. He assumes an air of learning as he praises the known effects of his medication, and is fancily dressed, as befits his profession. A peasant couple and numerous children are gathered around him. The theme is a familiar one in Dutch genre painting and printmaking of the period and was addressed by Rembrandt. Van Ostade's etching is a reverse copy of his painting of the same theme, The Quacksalver (Charlatan) dated 1648, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Te Papa's print is from the ninth state of ten. It was presented to the Colonial Museum in 1869 by Bishop Ditlev Monrad, and is part of Te Papa's foundation art collection.

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