The Outskirts of a Village, with a Horseman

This is a characteristic scene by van Ostade, a painter and draftsman of landscapes and genre paintings, who was active for only about a decade. His early works are strongly dependent on the art of his brother Adriaen, by whom there are also paintings in the National Gallery's Collection. Isack tends to give the landscape greater prominence, while Adriaen stresses the figures. His main landscape subjects were winter scenes and the Halt before the Inn theme.

This composition was engraved in reverse by B.A. Dunker in 1770 while it was in the collection of the Duc de Choiseul.