Interior of a Tavern with Violin Player

Adriaen van Ostade created the Dutch "peasant" genre in the seventeenth century. In this genre the painter does not intend to show us the realities of peasant life but presents types who are revealed as peasants by their uncouth mimicry. These paintings were addressed to the urban bourgeoisie who saw the comic element in the earthy, rough behaviour that was unrefined by social convention.