The Smokers
Über das Gemälde
The Smokers is a painting by the Flemish painter Adriaen Brouwer, painted in about 1636, probably in Antwerp. It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
The oil-on-wood painting measures 46.40 by 36.80 centimetres (18.27 in × 14.49 in) and is signed by the artist.
Angaben
- Inventarnummer
- 32.100.21
Derweil im Leben von Adriaen Brouwer
Das ganze Leben1631–1638
Debts and want in Antwerp
Brouwer's name regularly appears in Antwerp records in connection with the settlement of his debts; in his lifetime his paintings did not fetch high prices, and his household goods were seized for his creditors. His fellow artists valued him more highly than the market did: Rubens bought several of his pictures for his collection and tried to extend his patronage to the “incorrigible carouser”.
1631–1638 · Wirkungsort
Antwerp
26 April 1634
Moves into the house of the engraver Paulus Pontius
Brouwer takes lodgings in the house of the prominent engraver Paulus Pontius; the two had become close friends, and the painter lived there until his death. The same year the friends joined the local chamber of rhetoric “Violieren”.
1635
Takes on Jan-Baptist Dandoy as a pupil
Jan-Baptist Dandoy becomes Brouwer's only officially registered pupil.
January 1638
Circumstances of his death in Antwerp
Early biographers linked his untimely death to his lifestyle and abuse of alcohol, while Houbraken attributes it to the plague; the fact that his remains were first buried in a common grave supports the latter. A month later, on 1 February 1638, his artist friends arranged, on their own initiative and at their own expense, a solemn re-interment in the Carmelite church.
