The Knife Grinder
1650
Meet the 17th-century version of a mobile repairman in this lively etching by Adriaen van Ostade! A knife grinder hunches over his wheelbarrow-mounted grinding stone, wearing a tall, floppy hat as he works. A customer peers out from a dark doorway on the left, likely waiting for their turn, while villagers gossip in the background. Ostade was a Dutch Golden Age master who specialized in 'genre' scenes, capturing the gritty, humorous details of peasant life with energetic, scratchy lines.
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