Portret van Adriaen van Ostade 1670 - 1724

This is Jacob Gole’s portrait of Adriaen van Ostade, made in the Netherlands in the late 17th or early 18th century. It’s a print, an image made for circulation. Looking at this portrait, one wonders about the relationship between the two artists. Ostade was a painter of everyday life, who specialized in genre scenes of peasant life. Gole, an engraver and printmaker, here immortalizes a fellow artist. The print flattens Ostade into a kind of brand, turning him into a household name. This image presents us with the idea of the artist as celebrity. But prints like this were not simply advertisements. They were a means by which the institutions of art - the academy and the market - could elevate certain artists and styles, and leave others behind. Examining the archives of artistic production, the records of art sales, and the publications of art criticism can all help us understand how images like this one play a crucial role in the history of art.