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Frans Hals’s painting Adriaen van Ostade photo by Jopparn –

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Adriaen van Ostade

Art is a broad category of human activity and product that involves creative or inventive talent that expresses technical excellence, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual concepts.

There is no universally accepted definition of art, and its meaning has shifted dramatically over history and among civilizations. Painting, sculpture, and architecture are the three classical branches of visual art.

Until the 17th century, art was synonymous with any talent or mastery and was not distinguished from trades or sciences.

Ancient artists are known primarily for their sculptures, not only because these were extraordinarily well-crafted but also because they have been impeccably well-preserved, this is certainly true when compared to other art forms such as paintings which a few of the most prominent artists chose. One such renowned artist was Adriaen van Ostade. 

Adriaen van Ostade baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx on 10 December 1610 was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works. Painter and printmaker of the Baroque period known for his genre pictures of Dutch art.

Adriaen van Ostade was the third of the eight children of Jan Hendricx van Eyndhoven and Janneke Hendriksdr. Here are the top 10 amazing facts about Adriaen van Ostade.

1. Van Ostade received his training at Frans Hals’ workshop

Ostade learned from two exuberant geniuses of 17th-century Dutch painting, the portraitist Frans Hals (1582-1666) and genre painter Adriaen Brouwer (1605-38).

According to Arnold Houbraken, he and his brother were pupils of Frans Hals and like him, spent most of their lives in Haarlem.

More important for him than Hals was the influence of the Flemish painter, Adriaen Brouwer, who may have been a pupil of Hals. This must have been around 1627 when Brouwer – who came from Antwerp – was living in Haarlem.

2. He adopted the name “van Ostade” as a painter alongside his brother

Frans Hals’s painting Adriaen van Ostade photo by Jopparn –

Although Adriaen and his brother Isaack were born in Haarlem, they chose the surname “van Ostade” as a painter. According to the RKD, in 1627 he became a disciple of portrait painter Frans Hals, who was at the time the master of Jan Miense Molenaer.

3. Adriaen registered as a deacon of the St. Luke guild in Haarlem

An oil painting of the Governors of the Guild of St Luke, Haarlem, painted by Jan de Bray in 1675. photo by Jan de Bray –

He was registered as a deacon of the St. Luke guild in Haarlem in 1662 and again in 1663. In the rampjaar (1672), he packed his belongings intending to flee to Lübeck, which is why Houbraken felt he had family there.

He got as far as Amsterdam, however, he was persuaded to stay by the art collector “Konstantyn Sennepart”, in whose house he stayed, and where he made a series of coloured drawings, which were later bought for 1300 florins along with some drawings by Gerrit. 

4. Adriaen was married twice 

Photo by Saeed Sarshar on

He joined a company of the civic guard in Haarlem when he was twenty-six, and he married when he was twenty-eight. His wife died in 1640, two years later. He married Anna Ingels “as a widower” in 1657. He became a widower again in 1666.

5. He converted to Catholicism after marrying Anna Ingels

On July 26, 1638, Van Ostade married Macheltje Pietersdr. They drew up a will on March 8, 1642, six weeks before she died.

Fifteen years later, on May 26, 1657, Van Ostade married Anna Ingels, a wealthy Catholic woman from Amsterdam. He appears to have converted to Catholicism at this time.

6. He painted the beautiful interior of the Louvre

He painted the exquisite interior in the Louvre in 1642: a woman tending her cradled newborn, her husband sitting nearby, by a large fireplace; the gloom of a country loft dimly illuminated by a sunbeam shining through the casement.

One may suppose the painter intended to show the Nativity, yet there is nothing sacred or lovely about the surroundings, except for the wonderful Rembrandtesque transparency, brownish tone, and superb attention to detail

7. He temporarily fled Haarlem and moved to Amsterdam

His second marriage prompted a change in residence. After the death of Anna late in 1666, Van Ostade inherited considerable sums both from her and from her father.

His prolific output must also have provided a substantial income, for by 1670 he was living in relative comfort on the Ridderstraat.

In 1672, at the time of the French invasion of the Netherlands, he temporarily fled Haarlem and moved to Amsterdam.

8. Adriaen was Holland’s leading painter of peasant and low-life genre painting

Adriaen van Ostade – Sense of Taste photo sourced from

In his early work, Van Ostade depicted scenes of peasants engaged in debauchery using Rembrandt van Rijn’s forceful chiaroscuro. Later, Van Ostade portrayed calmer, more respectable people in comfortable interiors with carefully structured spaces and picturesque clutter.

By then, both he and Holland had become more prosperous. His subject is the peasant or workman in moments of ease or recreation – dancing, singing, drinking, fighting, merely loafing in his dooryard.

Children appear frequently in his paintings, and he enjoys depicting the painstaking stillness of schoolrooms. Even when the scene is the pothouse, his oil painting is not as closed in as Brouwer’s.

The country is often felt to be nearby and is frequently glimpsed. His compositional economy is weaker than Brouwer’s, yet it is always suitable to his theme.

He lacks the same deftness in his selection of still life and accessories and prefers larger groups.

In countless sprightly drawings and a lovely series of etchings, he analyzes the relationships and composition of his characters most thoroughly.

9. Van Ostade collaborated with various artists throughout his career

Portrait of Jacob van Ruisdael This is a fantasy portrait. photo sourced from

Van Ostade worked on several paintings with Pieter Saenredam and landscapes with Jacob van Ruisdael.

His most notable student was his brother Isack van Ostade, but he also had a following that included Thomas Wijck, Cornelius Bega, Michiel van Musscher, Jan Steen, Jan de Groot, and Cornelius Dusart.

10. Van Ostade’s unsold pieces were over 200 at his death

Smith lists 385 of Ostade’s photographs, although Hofstede de Groot (1910) lists nearly 900. At the time of his death, he had over 200 unsold pieces. His etched plates were auctioned off alongside the photographs.

In 1686, fifty etched plates, most of which were dated 1647-1648, were disposed of. There are 220 of his paintings in public and private collections, 104 of which are signed and dated, while seventeen are signed with the name but not the date.

The prices paid by Ostade are unknown; however, pictures worth £40 in 1750 were worth £1,000 a century later, and Earl Dudley paid £4,120 for a cottage interior in 1876.