A Barbershop, Adriaen van Ostade, 1673

brush, h 204mm × w 159mm More details

A hairdresser is lathering a customer’s chin, before shaving him. The man is holding a bowl himself, to catch the soap and hair. At the back of the shop, the barber – both surgeon and haircutter – is binding a patient’s shin, helped by an assistant. The shop is decorated with the mysterious implements of the barber’s trade: bottles and pots, a distiller’s flask and a mounted fish.