x ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE 315 cap, holding up a goblet in her right hand. To the left of her, in a raised position, stands a fiddler ; he stretches out both his arms, and holds his fiddle in his left hand and an earthenware jug in his right. Behind him to the right are seen the heads of other persons. On the left, in half-shadow, a peasant embraces a woman ; in front of them is a little dog ; another man farther to the left tries to pick the lover's pockets. In the right middle distance, a man is dozing at a table. Another man lies on the ground drunk. In front is a three-legged stool ; near an overturned bench ; on the floor are a plate, a pipe, and a pewter pot. In the middle of the back wall, which is strongly lighted, hangs a carpet. An excellent pen-sketch of the principal group is in the Von Beckerath collection in the Berlin Print-Room. [Compare 594.] Signed in full on the right at foot on the shadowed side of the over- turned bench, and dated 163- ; panel, 19 inches by 25 inches. Purchased from the London dealer Martin Colnaghi in 1894 for The Hague (for 2460 florins). In the Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague, 1907 catalogue, No. 580. 566. BOISTEROUS PEASANTS AT AN INN. Eight figures in front of a strongly lighted back wall. On the right is a bag- piper ; next come four singers, of whom one holds a jug and another a sheet of paper. Also there are three children. The prevailing tone is yellowish brown, with blue, purple, and pink local tints in the costumes. An early work. Panel, 12 inches by 17 inches. In the Copenhagen Museum, 1904 catalogue, No. 256^. 567. A COUNTRY INN. Catalogued as by Isack, but certainly the work of Adriaen van Ostade. Signed, and dated 1639 ; panel, 10 inches by 8 inches. Exhibited at Mainz, 1887, No. 165. In the collection of the late St. C. Michel, Mainz. 568. BOISTEROUS MEN AND WOMEN IN A COTTAGE INTERIOR. On the left sits a man, holding a jug in his right hand and a pipe in his left ; he looks towards the right foreground, where a man is pulling a woman backwards on to the floor. Behind them are an old woman seated smoking a pipe and a humpbacked man standing in profile to the right. In the back wall to the left is a cellar door. To the right are beams. [Pendant to 569. Possibly identical with 5870.] Signed in full on the right at foot ; panel, u inches by 14 inches. In the Zweibriicken Gallery. In the Aeltere Pinakothek, Munich, 1904 catalogue, No. 372. 569. BOISTEROUS PEASANTS AT AN INN. In the left centre a peasant sits on a bench in profile to the right. He raises his glass in his right hand to give a toast, and lays his left arm on the shoulders of a woman who embraces him. In the immediate right foreground an old peasant, seen from the back in a three-quarter view, sits facing left with his legs crossed ; his left hand, which hangs down, holds a jug. Between
