|
Date: |
|
Description: | In the foreground, a peasant wearing a blue jacket and grey trousers with a long feather in his cap lights his pipe from a little pot of embers. His stick rests against the back of his chair. By his side is an earthenware crock with a metal lid and on an up-turned half-barrel is a glass and a paper holding his tobacco. On the floor is a broken clay pipe. In a back room, three more peasants are gathered around a table. One raises his glass while another fill his pipe. The third, who has his back to the spectator, is seated on a half-barrel with a pitcher behind it.
Virag 09/12/2004, Between 1984 and 1985, a research assistant, Dr. Brendan Cassidy, was employed by Nottingham Castle Museum to research and write a catalogue of the foreign oil paintings in their collection. The catalogue never materialised, but drafts and notes relating to Cassidy's research can be found in the Artist Files and in the Archive at the museum. All references to Cassidy relate to these documents.
The subject of tobacco "drinking", as it was known, took place predominantly in specialist taverns in the early part of the 17th century. It was a novelty which originated in the Flemish and Dutch sea ports where it was taken up by sailors and soldiers. Although the habit spread to the middle classes, it carried associations of disrepute.
A date of 1645-50 has been suggested for this panel (letter in Artist File for NCM 1904-110 dated 14 July 1979, to David Phillips from Margret Klinge). Cassidy discounts Kilnge's dating on the basis of his erroneous designation of provenance to Queen Isabella I of Spain (1603-44); "However, the stencilled label on the verso recording the presence of the picture in the collection of Queen Isabella of Spain provides a terminus ante quem of 1644, the year in which the queen died".
Further research on the identity of the coats of arms on the reverse of the panel has determined that the provenance belongs with Phillip V of Spain (1683-1746) and his second wife, Elisabeth Farnese (1692-1766), thus making the date suggested by Klinge viable.
On the front:
The grain can be seen through the paint layers and runs in the horizontal position. There is an area of overpainting near the broken pipe on the floor and on the background figures; on the left arm of the standing man and an area near his right leg and on the man seated with his back to the spectator. In these areas, the glazing has reacted with the paint surface and is misted with a whitish residue. There is some paint loss along the upper left edge.
On the reverse:
1. NCM accession number
2. Label referring to the Royal Academy Old Masters exhibition of 1885. The title is given as, "Interior - Figures Smoking" and the owner as R.G. Millns Esq.
3. In the centre of the panel on the reverse is an area of vellum embossed with a decorative acanthus design. Over this is a large, circular stamp in white paint which features two intertwined coats of arms (one bears a shield with six fleur de lys, the other has a central shield of three fleur ds lys and elsewhere are two rampant lions and other symbols). The stamp bears the words:
"Hispaniarum Regina / Elisabeth Dei Gratia"
4. In black paint over this design: "61."
The accession card states that NCM 1904-110 was engraved by Thomas Major (1720-1799) in 1746 and that the engraving can be found in the British Museum Print Room. According to the Print Room catalogue, the British Museum does hold engravings after Teniers paintings, and specifically of his interiors with smokers, but a match between NCM 1904-110 and an engraving held there has not been verified.
Virag 09/12/2004, Collection of Phillip V of Spain and his second wife, Elisabeth Farnese; with Richard Godson Millns by 1885
Accession number: NCM 1904-110 | Subjects: | costume (men's) games food and drink interiors smoking and tobacco figures | Source: | Nottingham City Museums and Galleries | Creator: | by TENIERS the Younger/David (1610-1690) | Identifier: | http://media.culturegrid.org.uk/mediaLib... | Go to resource |
|
|