(Haarlem 1660-1704) Peasants in a tavern, pen and brown ink, brown wash über pencil on laid paper, 19 x 31 cm, browned, etwas stockfleckig, mounted, framed, (Sch)

With a certificate by Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg.

Literature: Bernhard Schnackenburg, Adriaen van Ostade, Isack van Ostade: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle. Gesamtdarstellung mit Werkkatalog, Hamburg, 1981, Cat. 249, 259, 405; Figs. S. 119, 122, 166.

Acording to Dr. Schnackenburg the present drawing is the earliest known sheet by Cornelis Dusart. It was probably executed in the beginning of his apprenticeship with Adriaen van Ostade. According to the rules of the guild Dusart, who became master in 1679, made copies after his teacher, including the present drawing which repeats a drawing by Adrien van Ostade in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford. Ostade’s Oxford sheet is a preliminary drawing for a watercolor which is signed and dated 1674 and is preserved in the Teyler Museum in Haarlem (Schnackenburg 1981, Cat. 249, 259, Fig. 119). Dusart’s drawing complies precisely with the model image; the artist executed his drawing freely as is suggested by minor changes in the depiction. His pen stroke is not masterful yet; it is searching and hesitant and with many reinforcements of the lines. The sheet reminds one of the early drawing style by Isack van Ostade, who became a pupil to his elder brother Adriaen in 1636. Isaak died in 1649, the volumes with numerous drawings, including his pupil’s drawings remained in the Ostade workshop. Adriaen van Ostade opened and showed them to Dusart; in fact the present drawing bears resemblances with Isack van Ostade’s „A farmer’s family at home“ in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Schnackenburg 1981, Cat. 405, Fig. 166). A later repetition of the motif is preserved in the Royal Kupferstichkabinett in Copenhagen (Schnackenburg 1981, Vol. I, Fig. 83).