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A young man in eighteenth-century costume leans back in his chair, pipe in hand, his expression dreamy. One leg is placed forwards to display a shapely calf, the other is hooked behind a chair leg. On the table beside him is a half-empty glass and a pewter jug of ale that glints in the dim light. Directly above him are two unframed popular prints. This is one of many genre scenes painted by Meissonier. He admired the seventeenth-century Dutch artists, like Frans van Mieris the Elder, known as fijnschilders (‘fine painters’). They also produced small-scale genre paintings using brushstrokes so fine and meticulous they are virtually invisible. The great English art critic John Ruskin examined Meissonier’s work under a magnifying glass and commented on his manual skill and eye for detail.
Title
A Man in Black smoking a Pipe
Date
1854
Medium
Oil on oak
Measurements
H 32.4 x W 23.5 cm
Accession number
NG6468
Acquisition method
Presented by Mrs Alice Bleecker, 1981
Work type
Painting