Ostade, Adriaen van

(born Dec. 10, 1610, Haarlem, Neth.—buried May 2, 1685, Haarlem) Dutch painter and printmaker. Known for his Baroque genre paintings of peasant life, he also did religious subjects, portraits, and landscapes. The most important influence on his style was the work of Adriaen Brouwer. Like Brouwer, he delighted in scenes such as tavern brawls, usually in dimly lit interiors, as in Carousing Peasants in an Interior (c. 1638). He employed a broad, vigorous technique in a subdued range of colours. After he adopted a brighter palette in the 1640s, his subjects became less ribald, and from the 1650s he painted many of them in outdoor settings.

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