National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Halt at the Inn
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

One of the most delightful aspects of seventeenth-century Dutch art is that it conveys a vivid sense of daily life. In this painting, for example, we see the bustle of activity outside a village inn as two well-dressed travelers arrive and dismount from their horses. A beggar woman with a child strapped to her back stands to watch while other figures converse with one of the travelers. The main street of the village is filled with other groups, among them men smoking pipes at a bench before the inn, a child playing with a mother's apron, and a man talking to a woman spinning yarn. Van Ostade creates a sense of conviviality by the apparent informality of these human contacts, and by including an array of animals within the scene. He also was careful to suggest the picturesque character of the buildings, trees and vines, and depicted the aged brick and mortar construction of the inn.

Isack van Ostade was the most important of a number of Haarlem artists who painted such subjects in the early seventeenth century. A student of his more famous, older brother, Adrian van Ostade, Isack tragically died at the age of twenty-eight. Despite his short artistic career, he had an extensive influence on his contemporaries, including Jan Steen, with whom he occasionally collaborated.

Inscription

lower right: Isack van Os... / 164[?]

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Naples, duchesse de Berry [1798-1870]; (De Berry sale, by Bataillard and Charles Pillet, Paris, 4-6 April 1837, no. 19). Charles-Auguste-Louis-Joseph, comte de Morny [1811-1865, later duc de Morny], Paris; (his sale, Phillips, London, 20-21 June 1848, 2nd day, no. 108). Mrs. Stephen Lyne-Stephens [1812-1894, née Pauline Duvernay or Yolande-Marie-Louise Duvernay], Lynford Hall, Mundford, near Thetford, Norfolk, London (Roehampton), and Paris; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 May 1895, no. 340); (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris), in 1895.[1] (Eugene Fischhof, Paris); sold 1898 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] Reproduced in Charles Sedelmeyer, Illustrated Catalogue of the Second Hundred of Paintings by Old Masters, Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, 1895: 34, no. 28.

Exhibition History

1909
The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909, no. 70.

Bibliography

1829
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 9(1842):127-128, no. 17.
1885
Widener 1885-1900, 2(1900): 235, repro.
1895
Sedelmeyer, Charles. Illustrated Catalogue of the Second Hundred Paintings by Old Masters, Sedelmeyer Gallery. Paris, 1895: 34, no. 28, repro.
1907
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 3(1910):450-451, no. 37.
1909
The Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909: no. 70.
1913
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch, and Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, repro.
1923
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.
1931
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 92, repro.
1938
Waldmann, E. "Die Sammlung Widener." Pantheon 22 (November 1938): 334-343.
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 6.
1948
Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): iv, 52, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 98.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 86, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 256, repro.
1981
Schnackenburg, Bernhard. Adriaen van Ostade, Isack van Ostade: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle: Desamtdarstellung mit Werkkstalogen. 2 vols. Hamburg, 1981: 1:35, 274, no. 59, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 291, no. 383, color repro.
1984
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984: 16-17, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 296, repro.
1991
Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1991: 72.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 126, color repro.
1995
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 191-194, color repro. 193.

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