Adriaen van Ostade

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Adriaen van Ostade
1610-1685
Hurdy-gurdy Player and Small Violinist at a Cottage Door
Pen and brown ink, gray wash, over black chalk, on paper; the outlines incised with a stylus; traces of a framing line in dark brown ink at right.
7 5/8 x 5 7/8 inches (194 x 150 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
I, 127
Notes: 

Watermark: none visible through lining.
The sheet is clearly the working drawing for a finished and slightly larger version in watercolor of this subject, dated 1673, in the Louvre, Paris.

Inscription: 

Inscribed on the verso of the lining: at upper right, in Barnard's hand, in brown ink, "J:B. N ̊: 962 / 7 3/4 x 6 / Given to by Capt ["t" in superscript] Baillie"; at lower left, in graphite, "mo/"; to the right of this, in another hand, in graphite, "12916"; further to the right, also in graphite, "Coll. Defer Dumesnil / (Lugt no. 739) [with arrow pointing towards mark]"; below this, in graphite (almost erased), "3 3 6"; at lower left, in Esdaile's hand, in brown ink, "1833 WE 80x"; and to the right of this, in another hand, in brown ink, "A Van Ostade".

Provenance: 
Captain William Baillie (1723-1810), London (no mark; see Lugt 2603); John Barnard (d. 1784), London (Lugt 1419); possibly his sale, London, Greenwood, 16 February 1787, lot 49: "Beggars at a Door, and several Figures, washed with Indian ink, by Adriaen van Ostade" (for £3.14.0); William Esdaile (1758-1837), London (Lugt 2617); his sale, London, Christie's, 18-25 June 1840, lot 856 (to "Mayor" for £3.10.0); Pierre Defer (1798-1870), Paris, and Henri Dumesnil (1823-98), Paris (Lugt 739); Defer-Dumesnil sale, Paris, Féral and DanlosÖ, 10-12 May 1900, lot 84; Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased through Galerie Alexandre Imbert, Rome, in 1909 by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York (no mark; see Lugt 1509); his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), New York.
Associated names: 

Baillie, William, 1723-1810, former owner.
Barnard, John, d. 1784, former owner.
Esdaile, William, 1758-1837, former owner.
Defer, Pierre, 1798-1870, former owner.
Dumesnil, Henri, 1823-1898, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 127, repr.

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