332 ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE SECT. 210. In the left foreground of a room, into which the sunlight streams from a window, six peasants are grouped at a round table, under which lies a dog. The nearest man, seen almost from the back, sits on a chair. The man next on the left reclines apparently asleep on the window seat ; the next is a man who stands lighting his pipe at a little charcoal pan. The three others sit farther to the right. The man farthest away on the right, seen in profile to the left, leans back, holding a pipe in his right hand. Beside him to the right is a three-legged stool on which is a jug, while a stick and a paint-box lean against it. At the back in front of a window is another table ; an old woman pours out a glass of wine. At the table sit two men ; one, with his back to the door, drinks to a man who enters. The almost illegible date was formerly read as 1639, but only the other reading, 1660, can possibly accord with the style of painting. It "may be classed among the best works of the master" (Sm.). [Compare 620.] Signed in full, and dated 1660 not 1662 as Sm. says on the paint-box to the right ; panel, 18 inches by 15^ inches. A copy is in the Wallace collection, London, 1908 catalogue, No. 756 ; it is on panel, measuring 17^ inches by 15 inches. It is mentioned by Waagen, ii. 159, and Suppl. 88. It was bought at the sale of Earl Granville, London, 1845 (.304, Marquis of Hertford), and was exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, 1893, No. 87. Sale. (Probably, according to Sm.) Cornelis Hasselaar, Amsterdam, April 26, 1742 (Hoet, ii. 49), No. 8 (430 florins) dated 1662, according to the sale catalogue. Purchased for Dresden in 1754 by Le Leu from the De la Bouexiere collec- tion, Paris. In the Royal Picture Gallery, Dresden, 1908 catalogue, No. 1396 ; valued by Sm. in 1829 (at about 525). 629. MEN AND WOMEN AT A COUNTRY INN. Sm. Suppl. no. Men and women, seated on benches and chairs at tables, are eating, drinking, and love-making. In the centre foreground a buxom countrywoman sits on a chair in profile, holding her child on her lap with her right hand. She takes in her left hand a glass of beer which a peasant, standing to the right, has poured out for her from a pewter pot in his left hand. Between them, farther back, is a man in a blue jacket, who seems to be telling a story, and points with his right hand to the background. On the right, by the hearth at the back, a woman puts a pot on the fire. To the left of her a man kisses a woman. At the open door in the back- ground a fiddler is playing. At a table to the left a woman, seated on a bench with her back to the spectator, converses with a peasant on the right of her. From the centre of a timbered roof hangs a chandelier with five arms. In the right foreground a three-legged stool which has been upset, kitchen utensils, and other objects lie on the floor. The scheme of colour in the costumes is very powerful. The picture is kept in a light key, so that one was inclined to ascribe to it an earlier date than 1674 ; moreover, the date inspired doubts because the figures are much smaller than the letters in the signature. A renewed inspection showed, however, that there is a good deal of variety in the colouring, as in the later water-colours ; the style almost resembles that of Dusart.
