x ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE 325 6o6a. Flemish Idleness (" L'Oisivete" Flamande "). Engraved by Madame Pelletier. 607. PEASANTS FIGHTING. In a large room two peasants are righting. One grasps the other by the hair and raises the hand in which he holds a knife to strike his adversary. A woman clutches his coat and tries to pull him back. Near them is a little, boy. Two peasants look in over a closed half- door. [Identical in composition with 610.] Signed on the left at foot with the monogram ; panel, 9 inches by loj inches. Sale. London, February 1906. In the collection of F. Stoop, Byfleet. 608. PEASANTS FIGHTING AT AN INN. In the centre foreground one man has thrown another down on his back ; he holds the fallen man by the throat and has a knife in his left hand. The man on the floor tries to defend himself, clutching his assailant's hair with his left hand, and holding a knife in his right. Behind them, a third peasant with a knife in his right hand comes up, holding his left hand to his forehead and turning up his eyes. A screaming woman pulls him back by his coat. To the right of him is another peasant, also restrained by a woman. In the right foreground is a three-legged chair ; on the left lies a wheel. At the back are a cask and other utensils. Attributed in the catalogue to Isack van Ostade. Panel, 12 inches by i6| inches. In the Mayer van den Bergh Museum, Antwerp, 1904 catalogue, No. 146. 609. PEASANTS FIGHTING AT THE VILLAGE INN. Sm. 212. In a large barn-like interior, with a door in the left background opening on to the village street, a peasant is on his knees in the centre foreground ; a woman leans over him and pulls him back by the coat. Behind them, a peasant strikes at the woman with a cudgel. In the right foreground stands a peasant with a knife in his right hand, ready to attack. His wife and little son try to restrain him. There are other figures ; among them are two men fighting one of whom lies on his back and a woman brandishing a chair. [Compare 544.] Signed in full on the left at foot, and dated 1656 j panel, 18 inches by 14! inches. The Munich catalogue treats this as a pendant to 544, which was painted in 1641 ; the dimensions are almost the same, but that is probably an accidental coincidence. Said by Sm. to have been engraved by J. Suyderhoef, but this is an error. Wussin says that his No. 127, "The Fight over Cards" (617), was engraved by Suyderhoef from an original in the Munich Pinakothek ; but he probably confused 617 with this Munich picture, which was not engraved by Suyderhoef. In the collection of Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz (who died 1706) at Diisseldorf (Van Gool, ii. 564). In the Mannheim Gallery. In the Aeltere Pinakothek, Munich, 1904 catalogue, No. 371.
