Smoking Woman
Cornelis Bega, a master of Dutch Golden Age genre scenes, captures a woman taking a leisurely smoke break in this energetic sketch. She sits slumped in a wooden chair, a long pipe in hand and a bottle nearby, embodying the casual 'low life' subjects popular at the time. The artist uses vigorous cross-hatching to create deep shadows, giving the drawing a gritty, realistic feel. Tobacco was a fashionable new craze in 17th-century Netherlands, often used in art to depict fleeting pleasures or tavern culture.
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