That said, smoking was once a common activity, shared and enjoyed by a large part of the population (though some paid dearly for having done so). Some have viewed smoking as a kind of consumption, analog to eating. In several recent museum experiences, especially last summer in Amsterdam and in the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia a few days ago, I was fascinated by the large number of paintings that portray smokers enjoying pipes or cigarettes. Here are a few of them.
First, during the Dutch Golden Age many painters of homey scenes included smokers. Around 150 years after America -- source of tobacco -- began supplying novel products for the European market, smoking seems to have been very well-established:
Gerrit Dou: Self-Portrait, c. 1640. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Man Smoking a Pipe: Gerard Dou, c. 1650. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Adriaen Van Ostade: The Smoker, c. 1647. |
Adriaen Van Ostade: Smoker at a Window, c. 1667. Detroit Institute of Arts |
Dirck Hals: Gentlemen Smoking and Playing Backgammon, c. 1687 |
An early Picasso in the Barnes collection surprised me with the cigarette in her hand:
Picasso: Woman with Cigarette, 1903 |
Finally, also at the Barnes, this wonderful picture -- I believe the man in the lower left is smoking as he waits for his child to finish his music lesson. I couldn't stop looking at this painting.
Henri Matisse, The Music Lesson |
2 comments:
Hi Mae!
It's ironic that you did a post about smoking today. We were having a rather in depth conversation about the difference in the smoking commercials of the past and the drug commercials of the present just today. Some were insisting that the cigarette commercials were much more entertaining. Can't say the same for these pictures but, they are notes of the past.
Thank you so much for sharing, Mae...
I hate smoking, too, and the smoke which really affects me physically. The pipes I never minded quite so much -- less smoke, more aroma. But the cigarettes and cigars really set me off. These paintings are great -- I really love the skeleton VanGogh. Never saw that one before.
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