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In this gentle scene a family relaxes in the street, the mother and daughter playing happily with a doll. The quasi-domestic setting, including draped linen, cooking pot and toy doll foresee the little girl’s future as homemaker, wife, and mother. The drawing captures the balance in childhood between education and enjoyment promoted in Dutch 17th-century art. The woman is both playing with her daughter and teaching her the skills she will require as an adult. Van Ostade is renowned for his colourful, idealised, and often didactic, portrayals of peasant life.

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Birmingham

Title

The Child and the Doll

Date

before 1679

Medium

pen, ink & watercolour on paper

Measurements

H 11 x W 9.2 cm

Accession number

48.11

Acquisition method

purchased, 1948

Work type

Drawing

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 2TS England

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Artist or maker

Adriaen van Ostade

1610–1685

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The Musicians National Trust, Waddesdon Manor
Peasants Dancing in a Barn Dover Collections
The News National Trust, Ascott
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