Smoker Seated at a Tableca. 1654–57

Gabriel Metsu(Leiden 1629 – 1667 Amsterdam)oil on copper
22.4 x 18.8 cm
signed in dark paint along background, upper
left corner: “G.Metsùe”
GM-111
Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To Cite
Waiboer, Adriaan. "Smoker Seated at a Table." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Gabriel Metsu used almost exclusively canvas supports during his earlyComparative Figures

years in Leiden, but preferred small oak panels during his mature career inAmsterdam. Only once did he choose a copper support, in 1654–57, when
he painted Smoker Seated at a Table . The smooth surface of thisrelatively soft but durable metal allowed him to employ a more meticulous
technique than in his earlier paintings. Indeed, Smoker Seated at a Table
marks a significant step in Metsu’s artistic evolution during his first years in
Amsterdam, at which time he gradually abandoned the fluid brushwork
characteristic of Jan Baptist Weenix (1621–60/61) in favor of the morerefined and softer technique of Gerrit Dou (1613–75). Although Metsu’s
technique here does not match the delicacy of Dou’s manner of painting orthat of his own highly finished paintings from later in his career,Smoker
Seated at a Table reflects his deliberate move towards “fine” painting in
the Leiden manner.[1] Metsu painted in this way either to meet an existingFig 1. Detail of Gabriel Metsu, A
Woman Offering a Glass of Wineto a Man, 1658–60, oil on canvas,
40.6 x 35.5 cm, private collection

demand for “fine” paintings in Amsterdam or to create a market for suchworks on his own accord.[2]The painting represents a middle-aged bearded man who sits at a tableenjoying a smoke. He holds his pipe upside down to light the tobacco bydipping it into the burning coals in an earthenware brazier. The small blackboard with an arched top in the left background indicates that the setting isa tavern. Innkeepers and serving staff used such slate panels to tally theircustomers’ drinks, as can be seen in the background of Metsu’sA Woman
Offering a Glass of Wine to a Man (fig 1). The smoker who, to judge fromhis woolen suit and round hat, is a farmer, has already been served hisbeer in a white tankard that rests on his table.[3] He looks out at the viewer
with a brazen yet sympathetic gaze, not unlike that of the bearded figure inFig 2. Gabriel Metsu, An Old Man
Holding a Pipe and a Jug,
1661–63, oil on panel, 22 x 19.5
cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
SK-A-250

Public Notary (GM-101), which Metsu had completed a few years earlier.
The present painting belongs to a long tradition of Dutch and Flemish
images of men drinking and smoking in a tavern—paintings commonly
seen in collectors’ homes, the shops of art dealers, and the workshops ofother painters. Metsu depicted this subject no less than five times, themost renowned of which is An Old Man Holding a Pipe and a Jug from themid-1650s (fig 2).[4] Metsu’s depictions of older men and women engaged
in their individual activities owes much to Dou, who had featured elderly
people in many of his early paintings.[5] Unlike other of Metsu’s works,
however, neither the composition nor the male figure in this painting has aprecedent in Dou’s works. In fact, the man’s facial features do not evenFig 3. Gabriel Metsu, A Womanwith a Jug and a Man with aPipe, 1654–57, oil on canvas, 33x 29.2 cm, Cheltenham Art
Gallery and Museum,Cheltenham, Baron de Ferrières© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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reappear in other paintings by Metsu, which raises the possibility that
Smoker Seated at a Table is a genre-like portrait.

bequest, 1898, © Cheltenham Art
Gallery & Museums,
Gloucestershire, UK / Bridgeman
Images

The coloration of Smoker Seated at a Table relates closely to Metsu’sother early Amsterdam paintings, among them A Woman with a Jug and a
Man with a Pipe (fig 3). During this period of his career Metsu
characteristically set off flesh tones, whites and areas of bright color, often
bluish-greens or orange-reds, against a gray background. In A Woman
with a Jug and a Man with a Pipe , the woman’s apron is the single
coloristic focal point, whereas in Smoker Seated at a Table it is the rim ofthe man’s hat. Metsu’s sensitivity toward color is evident in the way he hashere modulated the gray tonality of the painting with the browns of theearthenware brazier, the wooden table, and the upholstery of the chair.
Smoker Seated at a Table includes a number of objects that appear insome of Metsu’s other paintings. The table, for example, is seen in several
later works, including A Man Offering a Glass of Wine to a Woman , which
Metsu completed in 1667, the last year of his life.[6] It is likely that the artist
owned this piece of furniture. The same is probably true for theearthenware brazier and the white jug. Although the same chimney does
not feature in other paintings, it does resemble those in other of Metsu’searly Amsterdam works, including A Woman with a Jug and a Man with aPipe.
Metsu signed Smoker Seated at a Table in the top left corner with an
unusual signature: G.Metsùe. The artist generally inscribed his name
GMetsu or Gmetsu (G and m in ligature), but he added an E to his name ineleven extant works. Most of these date from the last few years of hislife.[7] What may have prompted him to vary his signature is unknown.
Some of the artist’s distant family members are also known to have signed
their name Metsue.[8] It should be noted that consistency in spelling was
not as important in the seventeenth century as it is today, and people often
wrote their names in different ways.

-Adriaan Waiboer© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Smoker Seated at a Table
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. It should be noted that, as far as we know, Dou always painted on wood panels and neverused copper supports.
2. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Review of Franklin W. Robinson, Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A
Study of His Place in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age ,” Art Bulletin 58 (1976): 458,
already mentioned that Dou’s influence on Metsu’s early Amsterdam paintings may havebeen “a response to a market in Amsterdam for Dou-like paintings.” See also Adriaan E.
Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London,2012), 33.
3. I am grateful to Marieke de Winkel for her observations about the identification of the sitteras a farmer on the basis of his clothes: personal communication, 2000.
4. For more on this painting, see Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: ACatalogue Raisonné (New Haven and London, 2012), 105–6, 243–44, no. A-101, ill.; forMetsu’s other paintings of smoking man, see ibid., 197, no. A-51; 198, no. A-52; 245, no.
A-103, all ill.
5. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 33–43.
6. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 198, no. A-52; 272, no. A-133, both ill.
7. Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven andLondon, 2012), 249, no. A-107; 252, no. A-111; 253, no. A-112; 253–54, no. A-113; 255, no.
A-116; 259, no. A-118; 264–65, no. A-124; 268, no. A-128; 271–72, no. A-132; 272, no.
A-133.
8. See Jan Briels, Vlaamse schilders en de dageraad van Hollands Gouden Eeuw,1585–1630: Met biografieën als bijlage (Antwerp, 1997), 359 (under J. Metsu), note 2.

ProvenanceCount de Dubarry (his sale, Pierre Rémy and P. le Brun, Paris, 21 November 1774, no. 33[to Le Brun for 240 francs]).
De Ghendt (his sale, Basan and Guilleaumon, Paris, 15 November 1779, no. 73 [to Langlierfor 300 francs]);
Gustaf Adolf Sparre (1746–94), Sahlgren-Sparre Palace, Gothenburg or Kulla Gunnarstorp,near Helsingborg; by descent to his widow, Elisabeth Sofia Amalia Beata Sparre (née© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Smoker Seated at a Table
Page 6 of 8Ramel), Kulla Gunnarstorp, died 1830; by descent to her grandson Gustaf Adolf de la Gardie(1800–33); by descent to his father Jacob Gustaf de la Gardie (1768–1842).
Count Carl de Geer af Leufstra (1781–1861), (who purchased Kulla Gunnarstorp in 1837
and the entire Sparre collection by ca. 1840); by descent to his granddaughter, 1855, andmoved, with the entire collection, to her house at Vänas, Knislinge, Southern Sweden.
Count Carl-Axel Wachtmeister (1921–2011), Vänas, Knislinge.
(Sale, Christie’s London, 14 December 1990, no. 122, bought in; sale, Christie’s London, 13
December 1991, no. 43, bought in).
(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 2007, no. 8; [Johnny van Haeften, London, 2007]).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
Stockholm, Bukowski, “Äldre mästares taflor ur Svenska privatsamlingar,” May–June 1884,”
no. 109 [lent by Count Wachtmeister, Vanås].
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, “Holländska Mästare I Svensk Ägo,” 3 March–30 April 1967,
no. 99 [lent by Count Wachtmeister, Vanås].
Kristianstad, Kristianstads Museum, “Ur Gustav Adolf Sparres konstsamling på Wanås,” 12February–6 March 1977, no. 26 [lent by Count Wachtmeister, Vanås].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Göthe, Georg. Tafvelsamlingen på Wanås. Stockholm, 1895, no. 41.
Granberg, Olof. Catalogue raisonné de tableaux anciens inconnus jusqu’ici dans lescollections privées de la Suede. Stockholm, 1886, 23, no. 39.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work by John Smith . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 1:318–19, no. 201. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts.
10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Granberg, Olof. Inventaire général des trésors d’art: Peintures & sculptures, principalement© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Smoker Seated at a Table
Page 7 of 8de maîtres étrangers (non Scandinaves) . 3 vols. Stockholm, 1911–13, 1:82, no. 375; 2: fig.
21.
Gudlaugsson, Sturla J. “Kanttekeningen bij de ontwikkeling van Metsu.” Oud-Holland 83(1968): 26 n. 28.
Kjellberg, Sven T. Slott och herresäten i Sverige . 18 vols. Malmö, 1966–71, 3:344, ill.
opposite 336, 340.
Hasselgren, Ingmar. Konstsamlaren Gustaf Adolf Sparre, 1746–1794: Hans studieresa,vaaning och konstsamling i Goeteborg. Goeteborg, 1974, 117, 127, 180.
Robinson, Franklin W. Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre
Painting of the Golden Age. New York, 1974, 48, fig. 111.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. “Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667), Life and Work.” 4 vols. Ph.D. diss. New
York University, 2007, 1:108–9, 408, no. A-18, 4:1067.
Waiboer, Adriaan E. Gabriel Metsu, Life and Work: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Havenand London, 2012, 40, 179, no. A-26.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular, rolled sheet of copper, has substantial weight and does not flex whenhandled.[1] There are no indentations or undulation and the support remains perfectly in plane.
There are two layers of oxidation products, a continuous brown layer and mottled black spots.
There are six labels and one black stencil but no wax collection seals or maker’s marks.
A light gray ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The figure’s face was laid in with a free
underpaint, which remains exposed along the corners of the eye and nose, followed by delicately
blended final paint built up with fine strokes.[2]No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The
images and a pentimento indicate the top of the figure’s hat was made taller and altered during
the paint stage to create two diagonal angles and a less rounded shape.
The painting is signed in dark paint along the background in the upper left corner but is undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. According to Isabel Horovitz, Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece
Paintings on Copper, 1575–1775 (New York, 1999), 67–68, “a highly worked sheet ofcopper will be less flexible than one that is not highly worked, and this is why quite thin (0.5mm) sheets of copper can provide such excellent rigid supports for paint films.”© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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2. According to 2009 examination notes by E. Melanie Gifford, Scientific Department,
National Gallery of Art, Washington.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection