The Smoker, Adriaen Brouwer (attributed to), c. 1635 - c. 1640 – (Adriaen Brouwer) ◄ Sebelumnya Berikutnya ►

Artis: Adriaen Brouwer

tanggal: 1640

ukuran: 30 x 22 cm

Teknik: Oil On Panel

This painting exhibits many of the characteristics of Adriaen Brouwer’s style when working in Antwerp. It has been generally accepted as by him26 and praised as such by Klinge,27 discussed at length by Broos,28 and included in the Oudenaarde exhibition of 2018. However, the partial cleaning, concentrating on the shoulder and shirt of the main figure, may mask weaknesses, for instance, in the alignment of the doorway, the clumsy execution of the man emerging from it, the poorly executed left hand of the smoker and the ill-defined scraps on the ground. The closest comparison is with the Two Peasants Smoking in the Munich Alte Pinakothek,29 but the handling seems less delicate. This and the weaknesses already noted, raise the question of the authenticity of the Rijksmuseum painting: whether it is the work of a follower should at least be borne in mind. Further weight to this caveat is provided by the dendrochronological analysis of the single-member support which is of oak from the Baltic/Polish area; it would have been ready for use from 1634 at the earliest, plausibly from 1640, two years after Brouwer’s death. Thus the attribution to Brouwer is here qualified. Two portraits of smokers by David Teniers II at Stockholm and Madrid , dated by Klinge c. 1635-36 and 1636-37,30 could derive from a conjectural prime version of the the present painting by Brouwer. The seated man is smoking tobacco from a clay pipe. The tobacco could have been imported from the Caribbean or more probably came from the locality as would have the pipe.31 Already by the end of the previous century, tobacco smoking had become widespread in the Netherlands32 and was to elicit varied responses and comments.33 It seems that Brouwer brought it as a subject from Haarlem to Antwerp. In Haarlem Willem Pietersz Buytewech (1591-1624), for instance, had treated it as an activity of the youth from the prosperous bourgeoisie.34 But here is depicted the interior of a tobacco inn and the narcotic effect of smoking,35 a subject favoured by Brouwer as is suggested by the estate inventory of Gijsbrecht I van der Cryce, an Antwerp innkeeper who died in 1639, which listed ‘… een cleyn schilderyken … van der schilder Brouwer van Toubackdrinckers’.36 Gregory Martin, 2022