Top o' the mountain to ya!

Vincent Van Gogh lived in Holland but if this beautiful impressionist painting is any indication, his family must have vacationed in the Swiss Alps. Check out the technique of our newest acquisition! Is it a Van Gogh? Hey, there's no harm in pretending is there?

Brouwer Grapes

Ok, I don't want the other museums to get too jealous but we may have an original Adriaen Brouwer on our hands. This pen and ink wash drawing is supposedly from the 17th century and has been attributed to Brouwer. I don't know if that's true but I'm sure not going to go to a lot of trouble to disprove it.

In my view, Brouwer is the man! He spent much of his time in alehouses of Flanders and Holland, drawing and painting all the drunks. (Hey, I live near Georgetown University! I should do the same!) His works are typically detailed and small, and often adopt themes of debauchery, drunkenness and foolishness in order to explore human emotions, expressions and responses to pain, fear and the senses. (Sounds like my neighborhood!)

I don't know if this is an actual Brouwer or not but if you think it is, I ain't gonna disagree with you. Especially if you're drunk and unruly.

O My Stade!!!

We have an actual Ostade! A genuine etching from a long damn time ago. I'm not gonna say it was made during his lifetime but I sure would like to believe that.

Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685) is a total artistic heavyweight. A contemporary of David Teniers the Younger and Adriaen Brouwer, he spent his life in deliniation of the homeliest subjects: tavern scenes, village fairs and country quarters. The people depicted by Ostade are short and ill-favoured, marked with adversity's stamp in feature and dress.

This piece is called "The Singers."