Description:
smiling man in collarless coat and hat seated at a table, proper right arm over back of chair, pipe in proper left hand, table holds another pipe, tobacco pouch and cup
Label Text:
Ostade’s prints of peasant types often appear sympathetic and descriptive rather than moralizing in tone. However, to a contemporary Dutch viewer, certain details might imply negative connotations. Depictions of smoking in seventeenth-century Dutch art primarily feature images of peasants—conveying that tobacco was an opiate to the unsophisticated. Conversely, images of smoking were also used to support further trade in tobacco and its products. Pipes and smoking were also associated with sailors, as many acquired the habit during their travels to tobacco- growing regions. Smoking was further allied with Dutch art and culture because of the country’s vast seafaring and mercantile interests abroad.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/test/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2005.32.2 |
