Advanced Search 
Ice Scene near an Inn
Isack van Ostade (Dutch, 1621–1649)
1644
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
64.1 x 89 cm (25 1/4 x 35 1/16 in.)
Framed: 85 x 109.4 x 6.5 cm (33 7/16 x 43 1/16 x 2 9/16 in.)
Framed: 85 x 109.4 x 6.5 cm (33 7/16 x 43 1/16 x 2 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2021.708
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In his short life, Isack van Ostade transformed the tradition of landscape painting by creating outdoor scenes that equally emphasize landscape and genre elements. This scene brings together the social strata of Dutch society: country folk, modest burghers, and well‑dressed urban citizens. Some enjoy the pleasures of skating, sledding, and conversing; others work hard to pull a sleigh onto land or care for the horses stopped at an inn. In cold winters, sleighs replaced ferries that would otherwise transport goods and passengers across the river.
Signed
signed and dated lower left: Isaak van Ostade / 1644
ProvenanceJosef Johann Graf von Fries (b. 1765 - d. 1788), Vienna; by descent to his brother, Moritz Christian Reichsgraf von Fries (b. 1777 – d. 1826), Palais Fries, Vienna; about 1821, sold to Maximilian I Joseph (b. 1756 - d. 1825), King of Bavaria, Munich [see note 1]; December 5, 1826, posthumous King of Bavaria sale, Munich, lot 104, sold to the Königliche Gemäldegalerie (later the Alte Pinakothek; inv. no. 1037), Munich; 1940, deaccessioned by the Alte Pinakothek and exchanged with Walter Andreas Hofer (dealer; b. 1893 – d. about 1971), Berlin [see note 2]. Adalbert Bela Mangold, Cannes; July 6, 1966, Mangold sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 35, sold for £16,000 to the Terry Engell Gallery, London, and Douwes (dealer), Amsterdam [see note 3]. 1967, Herbert Girardet, Kettwig (now Essen) (b. 1910 - d. 1972), Germany [see note 4]; 1978, sold by Girardet, possibly through Cramer (dealer), The Hague, to a private collector [see note 5]; July 7, 2010, anonymous (private collector) sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 27, sold to Johnny van Haeften for Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA ; 2021, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 15, 2021)
NOTES:
[1] Provenance to 1826 is taken from H. R. Hoetink and Frederic Duparc, A Collectors' Choice (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1982), cat. no. 64.
[2] Between 1930 and 1940, the director of the Bavarian State Paintings Collection, Ernst Buchner, deaccessioned many paintings at the Alte Pinakothek to trade for German works of art. At least seventy-four Dutch paintings were deaccessioned at this time. For further information on the deaccessions, see Jonathan Petropoulos, The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany (Oxford, 2000), 31-32.
[3] Joint ownership is according to Hoetink and Duparc, A Collectors' Choice (as above, n.1). The painting is included in Terry Engell Gallery, Fifteen Important Old Master Paintings (London, 1966/67), cat. no. 10.
[4] This painting was included in the exhibition Sammlung Herbert Girardet: Hollandische und Flamishe Meister (1970), Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, cat. no. 39.
[5] See Hoetink and Duparc, A Collectors' Choice (as above, n.1) and the 2010 Sotheby’s sale catalogue.
NOTES:
[1] Provenance to 1826 is taken from H. R. Hoetink and Frederic Duparc, A Collectors' Choice (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1982), cat. no. 64.
[2] Between 1930 and 1940, the director of the Bavarian State Paintings Collection, Ernst Buchner, deaccessioned many paintings at the Alte Pinakothek to trade for German works of art. At least seventy-four Dutch paintings were deaccessioned at this time. For further information on the deaccessions, see Jonathan Petropoulos, The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany (Oxford, 2000), 31-32.
[3] Joint ownership is according to Hoetink and Duparc, A Collectors' Choice (as above, n.1). The painting is included in Terry Engell Gallery, Fifteen Important Old Master Paintings (London, 1966/67), cat. no. 10.
[4] This painting was included in the exhibition Sammlung Herbert Girardet: Hollandische und Flamishe Meister (1970), Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, cat. no. 39.
[5] See Hoetink and Duparc, A Collectors' Choice (as above, n.1) and the 2010 Sotheby’s sale catalogue.