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A Man in Black smoking a Pipe

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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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.

The National Gallery, London

London

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

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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