Phil Painting

I see von Ostrade’s piece as a sketch for a  scene, rather than a finished piece. So I decided to use it as a starting point. I think  of von Ostrade as using the man falling on his buttocks as a comic device, a pratfall. (A pratfall used to mean falling on one’s buttocks.) I am sure van Ostrade was making fun of the peasants, but I wanted to create a different story, one where the man seated was from the social class the next  higher up, a yeoman. He has just read a funny story that satirizes the  class he recently joined as a successful farmer. I was thinking Hollywood set design, and Norman Rockwell  facial  expressions when I created this…