Two Peasants Smoking

Adriaen van Ostade 1610 - 1685

Summary

This scene of everyday life is by the important Haarlem genre painter, Adrian van Ostade. Two friends are enjoying a companionable smoke. They light their clay pipe from a brazier of hot coals, their uncut tobacco lying in a twist of paper on the table. The playing card and tankard indicate that smoking is not their only vice. Tobacco had been imported from the West Indies since the late 1500s. Initially peasants were the main consumers, since the wealthier classes thought that its intoxicating effects caused boorish and unseemly behaviour. Van Ostade's early work consisted of low class subjects, such as this: rough taverns and peasants with grotesque faces, strongly influenced by the style of Adriaen Brouwer, a fellow pupil in the studio of Frans Hals. As his career progressed, however, his figures and settings became calmer, and the caricatural faces of the 1630s began to disappear. He was a prolific and successful painter in his day and his own exceptional pupils included his brother Isaak, Jan Steen, Cornelis Dusart and Cornelis Bega.

Display Label

Two peasants smoking about 1650-60 Adriaen van Ostade 1610-85 Oil on panel The piece of paper on the table contains tobacco, which had been imported from the West Indies since the 1500s. Initially peasants were the main consumers of tobacco as the wealthier classes thought its intoxicating effects caused boorish and unseemly behaviour. Van Ostade usually depicted low class subjects in Haarlem, often rough taverns and peasants with contorted faces. However as his career progressed, his figures changed and his scenes became calmer and more relaxed, as here. Assheton Bennett bequest 1979.486