drawing; print study

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Object Type: drawing; print study
Museum number: 1895,0915.1232
Description: Saying Grace, print study; a humble interior with a peasant family praying before eating a meal of pottage, the mother seated with a child on her lap, another child standing near the table Pen and brown and grey ink, with grey wash, over black and red chalk, indented for transfer
Producer name
School/style
Production date: 1653 (c.)
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 141 millimetres; Width: 122 millimetres
Curator's comments: Prepartory study removed from the reverse of the etching dated 1653 (Hollstein 34), for comment see S.1495. The 1995 Ostade Exhibition label text: The lines of the drawing have been indented for transfer, showing that this rough sketch sufficed as the basis for van Ostade's etching, signed and dated 1653. The artist presumably developed the detail on the copper plate itself. A drapery study of the father is in Hamburg (Kunsthalle) and a drawing of a similar mother and child is in Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet). There is also a watercolour in Haarlem (Teyler Museum) of a similar scene by Adriaen's younger brother, Isack, which probably predates Adriaen's composition. Pious subjects of this kind were frequently depicted in the Calvinist Dutch Republic.
Bibliographic references: Hind 1915-31 / Catalogue of Dutch and Flemish Drawings preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (51); JCR / Descriptive Catalogue of drawings by old masters forming the collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch (763); Schnackenburg 1981 / Adriaen van Ostade, Isack van Ostade: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, Gesamtdarstellung mit Werkkatalogen (67)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 1995 Jan-Apr, BM, Ostade (no cat.) 2010 Aug-Dec, BM, 'Preparatory Drawings by Ostade and Teniers' (no cat.)
Subjects: peasant/villager; prayer
Acquisition name
Previous owner: Previous owner/ex-collection: Gérard Leembruggen; Previous owner/ex-collection: John Malcolm of Poltalloch
Acquisition date: 1895
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1895,0915.1232
Conservation

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