The Smoker
c. 1635 - c. 1640
Adriaen Brouwer captures the gritty, unglamorous side of 17th-century peasant life with this masterful Baroque scene. A man in a battered hat and bright green trousers sits slumped on a barrel, blissfully exhaling a cloud of smoke from his long clay pipe while a shadowy figure lurks in the doorway behind him. Brouwer was famous for painting tavern brawls and smokers, often using himself as a model for these rough-and-tumble characters. His loose, expressive brushwork and dramatic lighting influenced a whole generation of Flemish artists, proving that everyday moments of vice and relaxation were just as worthy of art as grand historical myths.
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