Adriaen van Ostade An Old Topper

Adriaen van Ostade, An Old Topper, c.1660-65, oil on panel, 8 5/8 x 7 3/8 in
Adriaen van Ostade, An Old Topper, c.1660-65, oil on panel, 8 5/8 x 7 3/8 in

 

 

Adriaen van Ostade’s An Old Topper  completed in 1660-1665 is an example of seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting.Van Ostade was exposed to many great Dutch contemporaries. He was a student of Frans Hals, and an admirer of another one of Hals students Adriaen Brouwer.Van Ostade painted in Haarlem for most of his career, and was a member of the St. Luke painters guild. Van Ostade painted  on low-life genre scenes and etchings.

Adriaen van Ostade’s An Old Topper focuses on an old man of lower economic standing drinking and smoking at what can be assumed is a tavern. This low-life genre is not a portrait of anyone, just a satirized  representation of peasant life. These genre paintings were used  as lesson in morality that could be found in any middle class Dutch household. Van Ostade’s An Old Topper  represents what not to do, with a very negative connotation attached to alcohol and smoking. The moral lesson van Ostade is teaching is to not drink and smoke, unless you want to end up like this old man.

 

By: Margaret Wolfe

Annotated Bibliography link: http://smalltreasures.as.ua.edu/?p=355