Ostade, ADRIAN

Ostade, ADRIAN, painter and engraver, was born at Haarlem in December 1610, and in that city he died, 27th April 1685. His teacher was Franz Hals. Country dancing-grounds, farm-yards, stables, the interiors of rustic hovels and houses, and beer-shops are the places which he loves to paint; and his persons are for the most part coarse peasants, ugly, sordid, dirty, ragged. Vigour and close observation, with skilful management of lights, are perhaps his most noticeable characteristics; and humour and poetic appreciation are not unfrequently present. About 1639 he fell under the influence of Rembrandt's style. He was a prolific painter, and his works are to be found in the museums and collections of the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Russia, France, and England. See a work by Bode (Vienna, 1881).—ISAAC OSTADE, brother of Adrian, also a painter, was born at Haarlem in 1621, and died at Amsterdam in 1649. Until 1644 he worked in the style of his brother, but then struck out a path for himself, and excelled in roadside scenes, winter landscapes, village street life, and similar subjects.