A Woman gutting Herrings in front of her House, Adriaen van Ostade (copy after), 1678 – (Adriaen Van Ostade) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Adriaen Van Ostade

Date: 1678

Size: 40 x 32 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

Hofstede de Groot was the first to demote this painting to the status of a copy in an article in Oud Holland.3 Adriaen van Ostade employed the composition in five original works, an undated etching,4 two drawings5 and two watercolours.6 The Rijksmuseum copy is closest to the watercolour in Musée Condé in Chantilly.7 The most significant contrast to that French original is the activity performed by the seated peasant woman. In the present scene she is gutting a herring, while in Van Ostade’s watercolour she is winding a skein of yarn. The clothing and its colours are also different, as is the stance of the chicken in the foreground. As Hofstede de Groot also pointed out, the date of 1648 on the lower part of the hutch on the left does not reflect the period in which the Chantilly watercolour was made. The latter belongs to Van Ostade’s late work from after 1670.8 The inscription ‘AV. Ostade 1648’ was probably added to the painting later on, as another year, 1678, appears on a piece of paper appended to the window on the right, which corresponds better with the watercolour’s time of execution. Another painted copy after Van Ostade’s composition, in which the woman is winding a skein of yarn as in the original, was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam in 2002.9 Attributed to Cornelis Dusart by Fred Meijer, that copy is superior to the present one in the Rijksmuseum and is obviously by a different hand.10 Jonathan Bikker, 2022 See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements