Street Vendor Selling Spectacles at the Door
c. 1647
Medium
etching, with touches of drypoint, on laid paper
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed within plate mark): 10.2 × 8.8 cm (4 × 3 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.8304
Art Historical Context
Adriaen van Ostade *Street Vendor Selling Spectacles at the Door*, created around 1647, captures a lively slice of everyday life in the Dutch Golden Age. This intimate etching depicts a street peddler hawking eyeglasses at a humble doorway, surrounded by curious onlookers. Van Ostade, a master of genre scenes, specialized in portraying the rustic charm and humor of peasants and urban folk, drawing from the realist traditions of Rembrandt and the Utrecht Caravaggisti. His works offer a window into 17th-century Netherlands, a time of prosperity when such vignettes celebrated the vibrancy of comm...
About the Artist
Adriaen van Ostade · 1610–1685
Adriaen Jansz. van Ostade (1610-1685) was a Dutch Baroque painter and printmaker who specialized in genre scenes of peasant life. Born and raised in Haarlem, he became one of the most prolific and celebrated artists of the Dutch Golden Age, producing over 800 paintings, 50 etchings, and numerous drawings. Van Ostade's significance in art history lies in his masterful depiction of peasant life, a ...