Barber's Shop

In Dutch towns of the 1640s the barber did more than shave. Barbers and surgeons shared a guild, and the man with the razor might also let blood, dress a wound or pull a tooth. Isaac van Ostade, working in Haarlem, painted interiors and everyday scenes of this sort, and this small panel imitates his world without coming from his hand. It was made by an unknown painter around the middle of the 18th century, about a century after Ostade's death. The barber leans over his customer, who sits wrapped in a white cloth, while a boy, probably the apprentice, stands close by. The shop around them is crowded with things. There are shelves of jars and bottles, a wine barrel, a birdcage hanging from the ceiling, and a dog curled up on the floor.