Interior in an Inn, called "The Skaters" (De Schaatsenrijder) (c. 1655): Artwork and History

Interior in an Inn, called "The Skaters" (De Schaatsenrijder) (c. 1655) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Cornelis Visscher (Dutch, c. 1629-1658) after Adriaen van Ostade (Dutch, 1610-1685).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Throughout his career, the Dutch painter Adriaen van Ostade depicted rustic genre scenes of peasants enjoying village pleasures; these had a major influence on the subject matter of Dutch art both during and after the 17th century. Cornelis Visscher’s work echoes the liveliness and warmth of Van Ostade’s, showing a merry group of peasants gathering in an interior to talk and enjoy a smoke. The small pair of skates on the floor in the center of the foreground indicates that the group may have returned from an afternoon of ice-skating, a popular leisure activity during the period.

Object facts

• Title: Interior in an Inn, called "The Skaters" (De Schaatsenrijder)
• Date: c. 1655
• Artist attribution: Cornelis Visscher (Dutch, c. 1629-1658) after Adriaen van Ostade (Dutch, 1610-1685)
• Place of origin: Holland
• Medium: Etching and engraving on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Image: 42.7 × 34.5 cm (16 13/16 × 13 5/8 in.); Plate: 43.6 × 35.2 cm (17 3/16 × 13 7/8 in.); Sheet: 45.6 × 37.1 cm (18 × 14 5/8 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1923.1000

Collection credit

Gift of Horace S. Oakley

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.