Peasant Festival on a Town Street 1674

Adriaen van Ostade made this scene of a "Peasant Festival on a Town Street" using watercolor and ink. These are traditional materials, but deployed in a way that reflects the social realities of 17th-century Dutch life. The sepia ink defines the architecture, the figures' clothing, and the landscape. The watercolor then subtly brings this scene to life, adding tones to the revelers' faces and clothing, with touches of earth tones and greens. The artist's process mirrors the scene he depicts: everyday life, touched with moments of color and festivity. The very application of the colors, light and transparent, gives the scene a feeling of unpretentious realism. Ostade's choice of media mirrors the very social realities he portrays. It's a celebration of the ordinary, of the pleasures and the difficulties of working-class existence. In this sense, the work pushes back against the hierarchies of value that relegate craft to a lower status than so-called high art.