Beschreibung:

DescriptionAdriaen Jansz van OstadeHaarlem 1610 - 1685Studies of a Man seated on a bench, leaning on a barrel
Black chalk, possibly oiled in parts, heightened with touches of white chalk, on blue paper127 by 162 mmCondition reportTo request a Condition Report for this lot, please contact Adina.Mukhamejanova@sothebys.com.
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The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colors and shades which are different to the lot's actual color and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation. The condition report is a statement of opinion only. For that reason, the condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot. NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ONLINE CONDITION REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE/BUSINESS APPLICABLE TO THE RESPECTIVE SALE.ProvenanceBears unidentified armorial stamp, upper left (not in Lugt)Catalogue noteThis spirited figure study epitomises how the leading Dutch genre painter Adriaen van Ostade used rapid chalk studies of this type to develop figures and poses for use in his painted compositions. 
It is very comparable in style with a double-sided drawing, formerly in the collection of Professor Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, which Dr. Bernhard Schnackenburg considers a relatively early work, dating from the 1640s.1 That was the moment when Ostade really began to make chalk studies of this type on a regular basis. In their dashing, rather angular handling and frequent use, as here, of a blue paper support, these drawings have few parallels in Dutch drawing of the 17th century. 
Many of them also, like this example, incorporate subsidiary studies on the same sheet, in which Ostade works out in more detail the positioning or fall of light on specific parts of his main figure, such as their hand, leg or head. In the case of the figure seen here, the pose is rather a complex one, so it is not perhaps surprising that Ostade needed to study several times exactly how the raised right leg would rest on the bench.
Although some of Ostade’s figure studies can be connected with surviving paintings, or with figures in the artist’s distinctive, finished watercolours or prints, others cannot. No painted figure exactly corresponding with this one has been identified, but another drawing in Brussels, showing a man also seated with one leg up on the bench beside him, was used as a study for both a painting and an etching.2 A further drawing, in the Rijksmuseum, depicts a figure very similar to the one in the present drawing, but seen from the back,3 and another study of a peasant seated with one leg on the bench, used by Ostade in two etchings of 1653 (B.34 and B.45) is in Hamburg.4  
A hallmark of Ostade’s best figure drawings of this type is the great variety of touch that he uses, with softer areas of chalk contrasting strongly with much darker, sharper lines and touches of white heightening. In that regard, the present drawing can be compared in particular with the outstanding sheet of studies of a violinist, in Hamburg, which the artist used for a dated painting of 1644.5 
1. Sold, New York, Sotheby’s, 31 January 2018, lot 3052. Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, De Grez Collection, inv. 2781; B. Schnackenburg, Adriaen van Ostade Isack van Ostade Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, 2 vols., Hamburg 1981, vol. I, p. 96, cat. no. 74, reproduced vol. II, p. 403. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-T-00-209; Schnackenburg, op. cit., vol. I, p. 106, cat. no. 124, reproduced, vol. 2, p. 644. Hamburg, Kunsthalle, inv. nr. 22 285; Schnackenburg, op. cit., vol. I, p. 94, cat. no. 69, reproduced, vol. 2, p. 375. Hamburg, Kunsthalle, inv. nr. 22 292; Schnackenburg, op. cit., vol. I, p. 89, cat. no. 46, reproduced, vol. 2, p. 25