Poor Folk Drinking in a Tavern

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Artist: Adriaen Brouwer (Flemish, 1605–1638)
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 19.7 × 27.6 cm
Museum: Rijksmuseum
Rights: Public Domain Mark

Adriaen Brouwer (1605/06 - 1638). Peasant drinking bout, c. 1625/1627. In a miserable room full of peasants, drinking and smoking, depicts the intoxicating consequences of tobacco and alcohol. One group of men are shouting drunkenly, a women lying on the floor has fallen asleep, totally unaware of her howling child. The sleeping man has his hand in his coat, which at the time was a clear reference to sloth, one of the seven cardinal sins.

Brouwer employed a modicum of resources to portray these peasant types. Starting with a brown undercoat, he painted the composition in light strokes of grey, reddish brown and pink; a few clear colours served as accents. Acquired together with the Van Heteren Gevers collection, The Hague- Rotterdam, 1809. On loan to the Mauritshuis in The Hague from 1948 to 2002.