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Notes

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Three peasants roll tobacco, fill a pipe and inhale, while their friend relieves himself in a corner. The discarded shoe indicates the protagonists’ unwillingness to leave such a congenial interior and the mussel shells warn of the poverty to which such behaviour will lead. The painter’s mahl stick and the portrait drawing on the wall may refer to the artist’s own fondness for taverns. Painted on copper, the picture is remarkable for its meticulous finish and for the fine execution of details such as the still life of crockery in the right foreground.

The Wallace Collection

London

Title

The Smokers

Date

1644

Medium

oil on copper

Measurements

H 36.5 x W 50.2 cm

Accession number

P227

Acquisition method

acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, 1858; bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, 1897

Work type

Painting

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The Wallace Collection

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, Greater London W1U 3BN England

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