Artwork
Peasant Family
Peasant Family is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Adriaen van Ostade. It dates from 1667 and is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum.
About this work
Overview
Peasant Family is a 1667 oil painting by Adriaen van Ostade, currently held at the State Hermitage Museum.
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts a peasant family scene: a woman feeds a baby while a boy and a man stand nearby, holding trays. The simple, rustic setting and the characters' expressions convey a sense of everyday life.
Technique & Style
The artist uses chiaroscuro, a technique that exploits contrasts between light and dark, to create depth and emphasize the woman's face. The warm lighting on her face and the baby's serious expression add to the scene's realism.
Artist & collection
Artist
Adriaen van Ostade (baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx 10 December 1610 – buried 2 May 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, showing the everyday life of ordinary men and women.
Old Woman Plucking a Cock
Saying Grace
Knitting Lesson
Genre Scene (Couple in the Interior)
The Tailor’s Workshop
Peasant woman spinning
An Old Woman Twisting Threads and Two Children in the Room
Old Woman Unreeling Threads
Nursing mother with three girls
Interior of a Dutch Farm Cottage
Interior
Peasant Family Singing