The Smokers (painting) explained

The Smokers is a painting by the Flemish painter Adriaen Brouwer, painted in c. 1636, probably in Antwerp. It hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.[1]

The oil-on-wood painting measures 46.4x and is signed by the artist.[2] [3]

Description

The painting is of five young men smoking pipes and drinking beer. At the time smoking was new and controversial.[3] Brouwer included a self-portrait: he is the one turning to face the viewer while lifting a drinking mug and exhaling smoke.[4] While the subjects have not been identified with certainty, it has been suggested the person in black and white apparel depicted on the right is painter Jan de Heem;[3] the person in the middle is Joos van Craesbeeck; the person depicted blowing smoke out of his nose is painter Jan Cossiers;[3] and Jan Lievens is the person on the far left.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Smokers . metmuseum.org . Metropolitan Museum of Art . September 8, 2017.
  2. Web site: The Smokers (1636) . Artble . 2 June 2014.
  3. Book: Liedtke, Walter A.. Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume 1 . Metropolitan Museum of Art . Walter Liedtke. 1984 . 5–10. 9780870993565 .
  4. Book: Sutton, Peter C.. Dutch & Flemish Paintings: The Collection of Willem Baron Van Dedem . Frances Lincoln Ltd. . Peter C. Sutton. 2002 . 47. 9780711220102 .