Adriaen van Ostade
Frans Hals·1646/1648
Historical Context
Hals's portrait of Adriaen van Ostade (1646–48) at the National Gallery of Art depicts his younger Haarlem colleague, the peasant genre painter who had trained in Hals's own workshop. The portrait of one artist by another — each with decades of friendship and professional proximity — carries special significance as a document of the artistic community in which both men worked. Hals's characterization of Ostade is characteristically direct and warm: the younger painter is shown with a slight smile that suggests both personal affability and professional confidence, the bearing of a man secure in his artistic identity and comfortable before the painter's gaze.
Technical Analysis
Hals employs a free, spontaneous technique appropriate to the informal portrait of a fellow artist. The broadly painted costume and background focus attention on the face, which is modeled with greater subtlety, capturing van Ostade's shrewd, observant expression with economical but telling brushstrokes.
Provenance
Buckston family, Sutton on the Hill, Derbyshire; (sale, Sotheby & Co., London, 5-6 May 1919, 2nd day, no. 285);[1] Brown, acting for (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Arthur J. Sulley & Co., and Colnaghi & Co., London);[2] purchased 9 May 1919 by (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York); sold 1 November 1919 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[3] deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] In this auction the picture was listed as _Portrait of the Artist_ by Nicholas Berghem [Berchem]. The auction catalogue states that the painting was "The Property of a Gentleman". Francis Russell of Christie's kindly provided the name of the family that consigned the painting (letter of 10 March 2003 to Arthur Wheelock, in NGA curatorial files). [2] The fact that the purchase was by joint account of the three dealers is given in the Public Collections section of The Getty Provenance Index Databases. The painting was Agnew’s joint account number J-1817 and Colnaghi’s number A-720. Colnaghi also sold one third of their share to H.M. Clark. Christopher Kingzett of Agnew’s confirmed Agnew’s purchase of the painting at the 1919 sale, but does not mention the joint account with Sulley and Colnaghi (letter, 7 March 1984, to Arthur Wheelock, in NGA curatorial files). [3] Letter, 14 February 1984, Nancy Little, Librarian at M. Knoedler & Co., to Arthur Wheelock, in NGA curatorial files. Knoedler’s recorded their purchase as from Agnew’s; the painting was Knoedler stock number 14774.
