Smoking Peasants

Material / Technology / Carrier

Eichenholz

Dimensions of the object

32,9 x 26,8 cm

Displayed

Aschaffenburg Staatsgalerie Saal R 115

Department

Flemish Painting

Genre

Painting

Inventory number

4762

Acquisition

1799 aus der Galerie Mannheim

Stock

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Staatsgalerie im Schloss Johannisburg Aschaffenburg

Citation

Joos van Craesbeeck, Rauchende Bauern, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Staatsgalerie im Schloss Johannisburg Aschaffenburg, URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/artwork/01G1djyLkE (Last updated on 19.09.2023)

Peasant scenes were very popular in Netherlandish genre painting after they were introduced by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Small-format tavern interiors by Joos van Craesbeeck follow this tradition, which was also influenced by Adriaen Brouwer. Van Craesbeeck adapted Brouwer’s model in this picture. A pipe-smoking man sitting in a sparsely lit, dark tavern interior allows the smoke to flow through his lips with great pleasure. His gaze is pensive and introverted. The subject of the picture is the negative effect of smoking, which was called roock-drinken, or “drinking smoke”. The dehydrating effect of tobacco consumption, which at the time was inextricably associated with increased alcohol intake and the ensuing drowsiness, suggests the mortal sin of sloth – one of the negative consequences of this vice.