Adriaen van Ostade’s etching, “Woman Winding Skeins”, c1684

Adriaen van Ostade (aka Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade) (1610–1685)

“Woman Winding Skeins” (La dévideuse à la porte de sa maison) (TIB title), c1684

Etching and drypoint in black ink on cream laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and lined onto washi paper inlaid into archival wove paper. (Note: regarding the colour of the ink in this impression, the curator of the BM makes the following interesting comment: “impressions printed in red ink are considered eighteenth-century impressions.”  [see BM no. 1877,1013.300])

Size: (support sheet) 27.2 x 20.5 cm; (image borderline) 9.5 x 7.7 cm

Inscribed at lower right with the artist's initials in van Ostade’s monogram signature, “Av.o”.

State iv (of vi). Note: I have attributed this impression to state iv as it matches the state iv impression in the BM (see BM no. 1980,U.1689).

TIB 1.25_1 (363) (Walter L Strauss & Leonard J Slatkes [eds.] 1978, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Netherlandish Artists”, vol.1, p.340); Hollstein 25.IV; Bartsch I.363.25

See also P van der Coelen 1998, “Everyday life in Holland's Golden Age: The Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade”, ex. cat. Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, no.26.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“A woman winding yarn at her doorway, in conversation with a man; in arched design.”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?searchText=S.1463.&ILINK|34484,|assetId=479428001&objectId=3093638&partId=1)

Condition: near faultless, museum quality, richly inked and well-printed crisp impression in near pristine condition trimmed to the image borderline and laid upon a washi paper support sheet that is innovatively inlaid/cradled within an archival sheet of heavy wove paper. This is a spectacularly good print mounted beautifully.

I am selling what may be the final etching executed by one of the most important artists of the Dutch Golden Age for AU$223 (currently US$171.41/EUR147.60/GBP130.56 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this superb print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Arguably this is van Ostade’s last etching. I understand that the issue of whether it is or not rests on solely on the date, 1684, shown on a watercolour of the same subject executed by van Ostade now in the Fondation Custodia, Institut Néerlandais, Paris (see S William Pelletier, Leonard J Slatkes & Linda Stone-Ferrier 1994, “Adriaen van Ostade: Etchings of Peasant Life in Holland’s Golden Age”, ex. cat. Georgia Museum of Art, p.144). According to Pelletier (1994) “this closely related watercolor suggests that the etching may be of the same period, and if so, then it is Ostade’s last etching” (p.144).

If this print is indeed van Ostade’s last etching then it demonstrates very clearly that this great master of the Dutch Golden Age never lost his “touch” even at the end of his career of capturing in a believable way the spirit of everyday folk engaged in everyday tasks.