This painting only came to light in connection with the exhibition of Adriaen Brouwer's works organized by Konrad Renger for the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, in 1986 (see K. Renger, catalogue of the exhibition Adriaen Brouwer und das niederländische Bauerngenre 1600-1660. Mit einem Beitrag zu Brouwers Maltechnik von Hubert von Sonnenburg, 1986). Renger recognized the picture as a very early - possibly the earliest - surviving example of Brouwer's art and published it (op. cit. 1994) together with another early work, the Tavern Yard with Game of Bowls (signed with a monogram "AB", Private Collection), which was exhibited in The Age of Rubens exhibition, Boston, Museum of Fine Art and Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 1993-4. Renger likened the present picture's technique, palette and aspects of its design to other early works by Brouwer, including the Pancake Baker (Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art), hitherto regarded as the master's earliest work, and Peasants' Repast (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel, Kunstmuseum, Inv. no. 909). Comparisons can also be made with the early tavern scenes in the Staatlichen Museum, Schwerin, Inv. no. 174, and the Ruzicka Stiftung, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Inv. no. R4. Renger specifically called attention to idiosyncracies of the painting's technique, such as the quick stabbing strokes indicating the fire and the fine hatching of the paint in details of the figures' costumes. He also noted the reiteration of specific motifs, such as man greedily guzzling a jug of beer on the far side of the table and the figure at the back right leaning out of the half door. The squat and course though animated figure types, wooden partition at the back decorated with a crude head study and the chalked reckonings of bar tabs, even the bristling swine devouring turnips (compare its counterparts in the Knife Fight, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam [on loan to the Mauritshuis, The Hague]) all recur in Brouwer's other early peasant scenes. At the same time, some of the figures' poses, such as that of the rangy fellow with a beret who extends his leg out along the bench anticipate Brouwer's later paintings (see Bayerische Staatsgemäldêsammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Inv. no. 2063). The bright palette of red, bluish green, lavender and grey is characteristic of the artist's paintings executed in the mid-1620's in Holland. From dendrochronological examination of the wood panel support, Dr. Peter Klein of Hamburg University has concluded in a report dated June 14, 1984 that the tree from which it was produced was felled at the earliest in 1619, and probably during the period of 1623-9. Assuming a drying period of at least two years, a stylistic dating of circa 1625 when Brouwer was about 20 years old is fully within the range of the technical data. Two years would be relatively short drying period but since the cost of the panels increased with their aging time, it would be understandable for an artist just beginning his career to purchase cheaper, 'young' panels. (Some artists, such as Jan van Goyen, seemed to have employed 'young' panels with no deliterious effects throughout their careers.) The palette of the present painting also recalls the strong local colors of the sixteenth century bruegelian peasant painting tradition of Brouwer's Flemish homeland. The peasant tavern theme Renger traces to the paintings of the Antwerp painter known as the Braunschweig Monogrammist. He concluded that the youthful Brouwer's extensive dialogue with these earlier pictorial traditions (see K. Renger, Adriaen Brouwer. Seine Auseinandersetzung mit der Tradition des 16 Jahrhunderts, Holländische Genremalerie des 17. Jahrhundert. Symposium, Berlin 1984, IV, 1987, pp. 274-8) was not only a matter of borrowed forms but also of content. Thus he surmised that the present image, rather than simply depicting high spirited, low life frivolity, carried a moral message akin to those of the earliest peasant taverns, namely an admonition against the consequences of intemperance (a popular subject in 16th century prints series) and related vices such as card playing.