Workshop of Jan Thomas van Kessel (Antwerp, 1677 – 1741) Tavern scene with smokers

Workshop of Jan Thomas van Kessel (Antwerp, 1677-1741)

Tavern scene with smokers

Oil on panel, 30 x 20 cm

With frame, 36 x 26 cm

The Flemish painter Jan Thomas van Kessel, born in Antwerp in 1677, was primarily known for his genre scenes, country festivals, and his depictions of lively tavern atmospheres, in which drunken villagers often clash or indulge in earthly pleasures with reckless abandon. Born into a family of artists, the Van Kessels, related by marriage to the celebrated Bruegels, he learned his first rudiments of painting from his father, Thomas. His training then continued alongside the still life painter Ykens: just like his pupil, Van Kessel appears to have been registered in the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp in 1692. Following the death of his esteemed master Ykens, Van Kessel continued his activity independently, working alongside his beloved cousin Ferdinand, who worked under commission from the powerful William III of Orange, to inaugurate his thriving workshop, which trained several high-level figures of the following generation.

Although the painter's apprenticeship took place with Ykens, it was Teniers who decisively influenced his artistic work. From the celebrated Flemish artist, he borrowed both the subjects and the extreme lenticularism that characterizes his genre scenes.

Genre painting has always been considered a minor genre compared to history and religious painting. Scenes of everyday life, however, are an invaluable historical document that allows us to fully understand the habits of people of all social classes during a given historical period. Among the most frequently depicted genre scenes in the 17th-century Flemish painting scene are those depicted in taverns, meeting places and places of leisure for the merchant bourgeoisie as well as the working-class fringe. It was typically the bourgeoisie that requested these types of paintings, often characterized by their small format. These images depict the everyday life of taverns in their most authentic form.

In this small painting, created in van Kessel's busy workshop, three patrons of an inn sit at a table smoking pipes. The atmosphere of the tavern is smoky, a departure from the style of the ideal master Teniers. The canonical lenticularism typical of the Flemish tradition is replaced by a loose, rapid brushstroke, perfectly capable of capturing the atmosphere of the setting. Another detail of the painting that differs from Teniers's work is the rendering of the barrels, which are more squat and square in shape.