Tavern Scene with Smokers

In a dim, low-ceilinged tavern a group of peasants sits around a table, smoking clay pipes and trading talk. Light falls from a single source, picking out weathered faces, a jug and a scatter of tobacco, while the rest of the room sinks into smoky brown shadow. David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) was the most celebrated painter of Flemish peasant life in the seventeenth century, and this small panel, 23.9 × 19 cm, painted in the 1640s, is a characteristic example of his warm, closely observed genre scenes. The work is held by the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.