The tradition of depicting peasants in seventeenth-century Holland as a catch-all for the lower classes of society was embraced by a number of Dutch and Flemish artists including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, David Vinckboons, Adriaen Brouwer, and Adriaen van Ostade, the author of this work. Peasants were depicted in inns with brawling and carousing in the countryside. Ostade was usually more interested in his model’s activities—he liked to tell an engaging visual story— than in their unique characteristics.
