ARTWORKS

The Smokers

Adriaen Brouwer (1605/1606–1638)

English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House

The Smokers

Image credit: Historic England Archive

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Three men are seated, two of them smoking pipes and a woman holding a tankard is speaking to another who is looking in at the window. The broad and fluid manner and the elimination of superfluous detail indicate that it is a late work. Smokers appear frequently in Brouwer’s tavern scenes, though at this time smoking was still a relatively new occupation. Introduced in the Netherlands in the 1580s by sailors returning from the New World, it quickly became associated with disreputable and dissolute behaviour. Tobacco smoking (or ‘sipping’) was a popular activity in taverns and became a subject of comedy in art and literature.

English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House

London

Read more on NICE paintings
Title

The Smokers

Date

c.1635–1638

Medium

oil on oak panel

Measurements

H 41 x W 37.4 cm

Accession number

WM.1522-1948

Acquisition method

management transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum to English Heritage, 2004

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House

149 Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner, London, Greater London W1J 7NT England

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Artist or maker

Adriaen Brouwer

1605/1606–1638

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