Study of a Covered Wagon

Study of a Covered Wagon

Isaac van Ostade

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like his brother and probable teacher Adriaen, Isaac van Ostade specialized in scenes of rustic life. This drawing is one of five known studies by him of wagons and wheelbarrows.[1] These sheets, characterized by close observation of details of construction and texture (and, in some cases, possessing inscriptions in the artist’s hand noting specific materials), testify to Isaac’s interest in imbuing his pictures with realistic and accurately rendered motifs. In the present sheet, with his masterful handling of chalk, ink, and wash, he carefully describes the woven cane of the wagon and the heavy canvas cover. Similar conveyances, being loaded or unloaded in the midst of other activity, appear in various pictures by his hand. [1] For this sheet and three of the other four drawings, see Bernhard Schnackenburg, Adriaen van Ostade/Isack van Ostade: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle (Hamburg: E. Hauswedell, 1981), nos. 560-563. For the fifth, see Peter Schatborn and Leonore van Sloten, Old Drawings, New Names: Rembrandt and His Contemporaries (Amsterdam: Rembrandt House Museum, 2014), no. 57.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of a Covered WagonStudy of a Covered WagonStudy of a Covered WagonStudy of a Covered WagonStudy of a Covered Wagon

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.