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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1967.25
People
Copy after Adriaen van Ostade, Dutch (Haarlem 1610 - 1685 Haarlem)
Title
The Spectacle Seller
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
18th century
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/296499

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black chalk on off-white antique laid paper, partial framing line in black chalk
Dimensions
15.5 x 13.4 cm (6 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: lower left, graphite: Ostade fec.
  • inscription: lower right, graphite: 2.233
  • watermark: Fragment of a Pro Patria
  • label: verso, upper right, blue ink: JW / 1093 / [illegible]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Emile E. Wolf, New York, given; to Fogg Art Museum, 1967.
.

Published Text

Catalogue
Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt: The Complete Collection Online
Authors
Multiple authors
Publisher
Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017–)

Entry by Susan Anderson, completed November 01, 2017:

This copy after Adriaen van Ostade’s etching, The Spectacle Seller (c. 1647–52, S5.19.4) ,1 is about 50 percent bigger than its source. The copyist, who skillfully wielded black chalk to accurately capture in this enlarged format the figures, drapery, and areas of light and dark, remains unidentified. The inscription at the lower right, “Ostade fec.” (Latin for “Ostade made it”), was added later in graphite, which suggests that at least one owner of the sheet believed he had an original Van Ostade drawing. Van Ostade did use black chalk for his rapidly drawn figure studies, but he never applied the medium to a fully finished composition, as seen here.

Notes

1 Adriaen van Ostade, The Spectacle Seller (Hollstein 29). For the date of the etching, see Leonard J. Slatkes in Everyday Life in Holland’s Golden Age: The Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade, ed. Pieter van der Coelen et al. (Amsterdam: Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 1998), cat. 30, pp. 130–31.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Emile E. Wolf
Accession Year
1967
Object Number
1967.25
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Subjects and Contexts

  • Dutch, Flemish, & Netherlandish Drawings

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu