|
Throughout his career, Adriaen van Ostade focused almost exclusively on the depiction of peasant life. His approach to the subject developed from his sharply satirical early works indebted to Adriaen Brouwer to a more rustic, sympathetic portrayal in his later decades. The coarse chiaroscuro effects were gradually replaced by a brighter coloration, and care for detail played an increasingly important role. Van Ostade's most acclaimed etching, The Family of 1647, marked a watershed in this development.
This etching, first state of seven, was made after a preparatory drawing. This scene is less caricatural than Ostade's earlier work. It represents an endearingly frugal yet peaceful household of a mother, a father and children in a domestic interior with a hearth on the right and a door to the outside at the back. The composition seems to have served as a blueprint for several of Van Ostade's subsequent variations of such scenes, both drawn and painted.
|
