(Haarlem 1660–1704) Peasants in a tavern, pen and brown ink, brown wash, over pencil, on laid paper, 19 x 31 cm, browned, some foxing, 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. p. 119, 122, 166.

According to Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg the present drawing is the earliest known drawing by Cornelis Dusart. It was presumably executed at the beginning of his apprenticeship in the workshop of Adriaen van Ostade around 1676. Following a general rule the fifteen and sixteen year old Dusart started out to make copies after his teacher; in the present case the drawing is a copy after a drawing by Adriaen van Ostade preserved in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, which is preparatory for a signed and dated (1674) watercolor in rthe Teyler Museum in Haarlem. (compare Schnackenburg 1981, Cat. 249, 259, fig. 119). In 1679 Dusart became master. Dusart followed the originals faithfully and executed them free-handed as minor alterations suggest. His penstroke does not yet share the security of the master, it is hesitant and faltering and shows several minor reinforcements. Dusart adopted the drawing techniques of the Ostade workshop. His manner of drawing recalls the earliest works of Isack von Ostade, who became one of the first pupils of his elder brother Adriaen around 1636. He died in 1649; the volumes with numerous drawings including the sheets by workshop pupils remained in the Ostade-workshop. Adriaen von Ostade opened them to his last pupil Dusart and showed them to him as a model. In fact the present drawing resembles Isack van Ostade‘ drawing “A peasant family at home” in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (Schnackenburg 1981, Cat. 405, fig. 166). The Royal Kupferstichkabinett Kopenhagen (Schnackenburg 1981, Band I, fig. 83) preserves a later repetition of the motif by Dusart. (Schnackenburg 1981, Vol. I, fig. 83).