1647
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Street Vendor Selling Spectacles at the Door is a 1647 ink by Adriaen van Ostade, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This sketch shows a busy street scene with three people. One person is kneeling, holding a basket, while another stands nearby with a box on their head. The third person, dressed in a long coat, leans on a cane and looks at something in their hand. The background has rough lines for buildings and trees, and the whole image feels sketchy and quick. The artist used a method called etching to create this print, which lets them scratch lines into metal plates. This technique gives the image its textured, almost scratchy look. Next, check out etching to see how artists make prints this way.
Adriaen van Ostade (baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx 10 December 1610 – buried 2 May 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, showing the everyday life of ordinary men and women.
See the richer artist page
