A Painter at Work in his Studio

Thomas Wijck Dutch

Not on view

This large drawing by Wijck is a variant of two works by his probable teacher, Adriaen van Ostade: a 1663 painting in Berlin (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister) and a slightly later print (see 17.50.15-349), both of which show a painter working at an easel within a very similar studio space. Various motifs—the paned windows, the spiral staircase, the sheep’s skull and lute hanging on the walls, and the open trunk and basket on the floor—are found in one or both of these works. Wijck’s drawing, like Ostade’s painting (less so the print), presents the studio as a humble interior in a state of disorder—interpreted as the material consequences of the profession, to which the painter himself is oblivious.

A Painter at Work in his Studio, Thomas Wijck (Dutch, Beverwijck, near Haarlem 1616?–1677 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, brown wash, white gouache, over black and red chalk, on blue paper; framing line at top and bottom in pen and brown ink

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A Painter at Work in his Studio, Thomas Wijck (Dutch, Beverwijck, near Haarlem 1616?–1677 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, brown wash, white gouache, over black and red chalk, on blue paper; framing line at top and bottom in pen and brown ink
A Painter at Work in his Studio, Thomas Wijck (Dutch, Beverwijck, near Haarlem 1616?–1677 Haarlem), Pen and brown ink, brown wash, white gouache, over black and red chalk, on blue paper; framing line at top and bottom in pen and brown ink

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