Entry by
Susan Anderson,
completed November 01, 2017:
This scene of a dark tavern interior was inspired by Adriaen van Ostade’s drawings and paintings of similar subjects from the early decades of his career. This sheet lacks the compositional unity, rapid but articulate penmanship, and figural precision of many of Van Ostade’s works of the period, however. The disjointed relationship of the figures of the fore- and middle ground, vaguely defined space, and the clumsy rendering of the smoker, especially, point to an inexperienced hand of the mid-17th century. The gray wash sloppily applied around the central figures may be concurrent with the brown ink, but may also be later.
