Farmer Leaning on the Lower Half of a Door, Adriaen van Ostade, 1651 - 1655
etching, h 107mm × w 92mm More details
Adriaen van Ostade often made preparatory drawings for his compositions. Here he worked out the man leaning over the lower half of a door. The blue paper allowed him to draw the shapes in black chalk as well as experiment with the distribution of light using white chalk. The heavily accentuated areas on the man’s jaw and around his hands suggest this was the first drawing for the composition.
