1032 - Isack van Ostade

Isack van Ostade Interior of a tavern with peasants merrymaking A slaughter scene outside a tavern Oil on panel. 39 x 52.7 cm (oval). Both signed and dated lower center: Isaak v Ostade / 1645. Provenance Collection of Baroness Zouche of Haryngworth. – Christie’s, London, 28.7.1927, lot 22. – Jan Dik Jr., Amsterdam, 1942. – Private Collection, Germany. Isack van Ostade, brother and pupil of Adriaen (1610-1685), depicts in this pair of ovals, with captivatingly free brushwork, two lively scenes of the outdoors and indoors of Dutch genre painting. Outside an old inn, a throng of children looks on as a split pig is gutted, one of the rawest and, at the same time, most fascinating motifs of the period. Inside, by contrast, Isack plays virtuosically with the warm light that streams from the window, with its green-blue landscape view, into the half-light of the barn, where peasants merrily dance and drink.