3-070-486 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Dance", facsimile of an etching by Adrian van Ostade, 1881. 'Adrian, for his part, was so fond of introducing a shrub or tree as to bring it inside the house upon such an occasion as the dance which is represented in our Engraving. This, however, is not from a painting, but a facsimile of one of his etchings, which are wonderful...for their mastery of light and shade. Their greatest merit, indeed, is the variety of easy and natural attitudes, and the air of unconscious vivacity, displayed by these figures of country folk, men and women freely enjoying their fit of homely gaiety, with a degree of innocent rudeness that is almost childish...The worthy Dutch vrouws...need a little manual coaxing to lead them to join the dance...This performance...is watched with smiling approval, by the gentleman seated on the side bench, wearing a buttoned jerkin and broad slouched hat, who has laid down his pipe..., abandoning himself to jovial contemplation of the scene. The mistress of the house, with her children beside her, sits at the foot of the stair, ready to greet the...freshly-arrived guests...It is an honest party of Dutch rural folk in the seventeenth century, taking their wholesome recreation in company, which it does one good to see'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.