A crowd gathered around a mountebank who points to a banner illustrating various methods of execution; to the left stands a rat-catcher. Oil painting after C.W.E. Dietrich (?) after A. van Ostade (?).

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 41.5 x 33 cm

There is an etching by Dietrich of a similar composition (Wellcome Library catalogue no. 38321i), possibly after a painting by Ostade (Hofstede de Groot loc. cit.). The present painting differs however, e.g. in the presence of the blind man and his dog in the foreground (absent in Dietrich's print). There is also a mezzotint of the same composition, dated 1772, with lettering "The Flemish ratt catcher. Ostade pinxt. Robt. Lowry fecit": this is in the same direction both as Dietrich's print and as the present painting (i.e. the protagonist points to the screen with his left hand)

C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters, London, 1910, vol. 3, p. 269, Ostade no. 421b (possibly after that painting)

Wellcome Collection 45033i