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Lot Essay
The subject of the smoker is one of the most central motifs of Teniers' oeuvre and recurs in many of his finest works, to cite just a few: Le Bonnet rouge (1644; Byng Collection, Wrotham Park), Le Bonnet vert (1636/7; Madrid; Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection), The Smokers (c. 1635; Stockholm, Nationalmuseum), The Smoker (1645; St. Petersburg, Hermitage), the Interior with a smoker at a table (1643; Paris, Louvre), the Boors carousing (1644; London, Wallace Collection), or the Interior with Smokers (c. 1635; Munich, Kurfürstliche Galerie).
The subject matter can be traced directly back to the influence of Adriaen Brouwer, who introduced the theme of tobacco smoking into the canon of Flemish art. The activity carried particular associations, but it also introduced the opportunity for a display of fresh permutations of facial expressions combined with the depiction of new visual phenomena, notably smoke leaving the mouth and nostrils. This was exploited by Brouwer most famously in his Smokers (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) of 1635-6, on which Teniers based at least two versions incorporating the principal figure (Los Angeles, County Museum of Art; and Madrid, Prado). The present figure owes more, albeit less directly, to the protagonist in Brouwer's The Smoker in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The two artists' oeuvres in this field can be closely similar in the early 1630s. Indeed, Wilhelm von Bode mistook Teniers' Smokers of 1633 in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, for a work by Brouwer (whom he preferred as an artist) in his 1924 monograph on the latter. As noted by Margret Klinge in her discussion of the picture (catalogue of the exhibition, David Teniers the Younger, Antwerp, 1991, p. 26, no 1), 'in praising the careful composition, the convincing handling of the lights and the effect of the chiaroscuro of the "tobacco den", this connoisseur of Netherlandish painting was not only making a statement about the quality of the picture, but also unwittingly testifying to the close dependency of Teniers' early work on the art of Brouwer.'
However, although strongly influenced by Brouwer, Teniers' pictures are far from mere imitations; instead, he rapidly stamped his own artistic personality on the theme, imbuing them with a presence and calmness that is very different from the work of his northern contemporary. So, for example, Teniers' compositions tend to eschew the sharp diagonals and angles that lend to Brouwer's work their nervous energy; instead, Teniers' paintings tend towards a calmer, more self-indulgent mood that is reflected in his use of palette - subtle shades of neutral colours enlivened at carefully selected intervals by brighter highlights. Perhaps most noticeable, however, is the difference in their respective treatments of figures: in Brouwer's paintings, they tend to be stylised and anonymous - closer to those in the background of the present picture - but in Teniers' paintings, the main character, or characters, are highly personalised, to the degree that they could be (and indeed often have been) mistaken for portraits.
We are very grateful to Dr. Konrad Renger of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen for confirming the details of the picture's 1938 deaccession.
The subject matter can be traced directly back to the influence of Adriaen Brouwer, who introduced the theme of tobacco smoking into the canon of Flemish art. The activity carried particular associations, but it also introduced the opportunity for a display of fresh permutations of facial expressions combined with the depiction of new visual phenomena, notably smoke leaving the mouth and nostrils. This was exploited by Brouwer most famously in his Smokers (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) of 1635-6, on which Teniers based at least two versions incorporating the principal figure (Los Angeles, County Museum of Art; and Madrid, Prado). The present figure owes more, albeit less directly, to the protagonist in Brouwer's The Smoker in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The two artists' oeuvres in this field can be closely similar in the early 1630s. Indeed, Wilhelm von Bode mistook Teniers' Smokers of 1633 in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, for a work by Brouwer (whom he preferred as an artist) in his 1924 monograph on the latter. As noted by Margret Klinge in her discussion of the picture (catalogue of the exhibition, David Teniers the Younger, Antwerp, 1991, p. 26, no 1), 'in praising the careful composition, the convincing handling of the lights and the effect of the chiaroscuro of the "tobacco den", this connoisseur of Netherlandish painting was not only making a statement about the quality of the picture, but also unwittingly testifying to the close dependency of Teniers' early work on the art of Brouwer.'
However, although strongly influenced by Brouwer, Teniers' pictures are far from mere imitations; instead, he rapidly stamped his own artistic personality on the theme, imbuing them with a presence and calmness that is very different from the work of his northern contemporary. So, for example, Teniers' compositions tend to eschew the sharp diagonals and angles that lend to Brouwer's work their nervous energy; instead, Teniers' paintings tend towards a calmer, more self-indulgent mood that is reflected in his use of palette - subtle shades of neutral colours enlivened at carefully selected intervals by brighter highlights. Perhaps most noticeable, however, is the difference in their respective treatments of figures: in Brouwer's paintings, they tend to be stylised and anonymous - closer to those in the background of the present picture - but in Teniers' paintings, the main character, or characters, are highly personalised, to the degree that they could be (and indeed often have been) mistaken for portraits.
We are very grateful to Dr. Konrad Renger of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen for confirming the details of the picture's 1938 deaccession.