Provenance
Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Naples, duchesse de Berry [1798-1870]; (De Berry sale, by Bataillard and Charles Pillet, Paris, 4-6 April 1837, no. 19). Charles-Auguste-Louis-Joseph, comte de Morny [1811-1865, later duc de Morny], Paris; (his sale, Phillips, London, 20-21 June 1848, 2nd day, no. 108). Mrs. Stephen Lyne-Stephens [1812-1894, née Pauline Duvernay or Yolande-Marie-Louise Duvernay], Lynford Hall, Mundford, near Thetford, Norfolk, London (Roehampton), and Paris; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 May 1895, no. 340); (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris), in 1895.[1] (Eugene Fischhof, Paris); sold 1898 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Reproduced in Charles Sedelmeyer, _Illustrated Catalogue of the Second Hundred of Paintings by Old Masters, Sedelmeyer Gallery_, Paris, 1895: 34, no. 28.
Accession Number
1942.9.49
Medium
oil on panel transferred to canvas
Dimensions
overall: 50 x 66 cm (19 11/16 x 26 in.) | framed: 72.4 x 88.6 x 6 cm (28 1/2 x 34 7/8 x 2 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Widener Collection
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Panel Painting Canvas Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Isack van Ostade (1621-1649) was a Dutch genre painter, the younger brother of Adriaen van Ostade, known for his winter landscapes and outdoor genre scenes that combine the peasant subject matter of his brother with a greater attention to landscape and atmospheric effect. The Halt at the Inn from 1645 depicts travelers stopping at an inn with the combination of genre detail and landscape atmosphere that distinguishes Isack's best work from the more purely interior genre scenes of his brother. The 1645 date places this in Isack's most productive period, before his premature death at the age of 28 cut short one of the most promising careers in Dutch genre painting.
Cultural Impact
Isack van Ostade's outdoor genre scenes are important in the history of Dutch painting because they combine the peasant subject matter of interior genre painting with the landscape and atmospheric effects that distinguish Dutch landscape painting. The Halt at the Inn demonstrates Isack's ability to move genre painting from the interior to the exterior, creating a type of outdoor genre scene that would influence Dutch landscape painting for the rest of the 17th century.
Why It Matters
The Halt at the Inn is Isack van Ostade moving genre to the outdoors: travelers at an inn rendered with the combination of genre detail and landscape atmosphere that distinguishes his best work from his brother Adriaen's interior scenes. The 1645 painting shows the outdoor genre scene that would influence Dutch landscape painting for the rest of the century.
