Adriaen van Ostade (Ostade Adriaen van)

(1610-1685)
He painted mostly scenes of peasant life. Born in Haarlem, ca. 1627 studied with Frans Hals, and in 1634 joined the guild of St.. Luke. Early work Ostade - mostly pictures of the peasants for food or playing a musical instrument, executed in dark colors. Beginning around 1630's under the influence of Rembrandt's figures in the paintings Ostade become bigger, their movements are quiet, they are more attractively packaged in a clear spatial environment. Despite the fact that the artist never ceased to emphasize the squalor and misery of peasant life, his later works are lighter and brighter. Almost all the works are dated and signed by Ostade. Survived several hundred of his paintings, about fifty engravings and numerous paintings attributed to him. Died Adriaen van Ostade in Haarlem in 1685.