Tavern Scene of Five Men Smoking and Drinking
date: label: date made
content: 1827
notes: label: Description
content: Oil on canvas tavern scene of five men drinking and smoking. For several centuries, taverns were a place to gather to spend recreational time eating and drinking alcohol as well as a place for conversation, to exchange news, discuss politics, and cultivate social networks. Taverns also were a place for rowdy behavior and colorful language when customers became drunk.
label: Description
content: This genre painting appears to be a satirical copy of a work in the style of Baroque Flemish painters David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) or Adriaen Brouwer (c.1605-1638). The men are bloated and sloppily dressed in18th century attire. They gather around a small table in corner of the room. Three, portly figures are seated at the table while two others stand. The man at the far left appears to have fallen asleep with a burning pipe in one hand and a goblet in other. Two others also smoke pipes. One of the standing men hands a yellow pitcher to one of the men seated at table. Two glasses on table. There is a signature on the lower left side of a depicted box which indicates the painting was done in Halifax, 1827 and painted by an artist named Fisher. Alvan Fisher (1792-1863) was a genre artist who painted in Europe, New England, and Charleston but this painting does not appear to be similar to his other works; it is more likely the work of an itinerant folk artist possibly from Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada or an American city named Halifax.
label: Description
content: This painting is part of the Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne Folk Art Collection. This collection was assembled by the Van Alstyne sisters over a period of forty years prior to Eleanor's death in 1942. Eleanor Van Ness Alstyne graduated Cornell University ain 1916 and became a New York physician. Her siste Mabel studied at Pratt Institute as an ilustrator and artis, and in 1930 married painter, sculptor, architect Fred Dana Marsh, who encouraged his wife and sister-in-law to build their collections, creating a private museum to house the collections until it was gifted to the Smithsonian in 1964.
place: label: place made
content: Canada: Nova Scotian, Halifax
label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne American Folk Art Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.65.0896
label: catalog number
content: 65.0896
label: accession number
content: 256396
objectType: label: Object Name
content: painting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: canvas (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (frame material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (frame material)
label: Physical Description
content: wire (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 1/8 in x 17 5/16 in x 1 1/8 in; 53.6575 cm x 44.0055 cm x 2.8575 cm