Smoking still life

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The smoking still life , also toebakje or rookertje , is a special form of Dutch still life painting of the 17th century. On the one hand, the clay kegs, bright white pipes and glowing fuses and coals were a welcome addition to the props presented and thus a play area for optical effects and color nuances; on the other hand, the vicious subjects - just like smoking - reminded the buyer not to succumb to them completely and to become aware of the opposite virtue.

Smoking in the Netherlands in the 17th century

Jan Steen
Like the old (sang), like the young (whistle) , approx. 1665, oil on canvas, 134 × 163 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague
Karel Slabbaert
Smoking Still Life , 1641, oil on panel, 41 × 34 cm, private collection

The tobacco was introduced around 1580 by seamen in the Netherlands and increased rapidly in popularity to. It cannot be overlooked either that smoking, for example in paintings by Jan Steen or Adriaen van Ostade, has a negative connotation. The question arises as to why an activity that is perceived as negatively in society such as smoking came into question as a motif for paintings that then adorned the buyers' rooms. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer explains this with an ambivalence of smoking in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Smoking was officially frowned upon, but almost everyone was passionate about it. Here she recognizes a moral effect similar to that present in Jan Steen's paintings. By showing the bad qualities of people, he admonished them at the same time to turn away from them and thus to morality.

From 1620, the main import of tobacco was via the ports in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The country earned very well on the actually frowned upon luxury goods through the tariffs and the production and trade of the popular white clay pipes flourished in the city of Gouda . The toebakjes and rookertjes therefore not only show a moralizing confrontation with reality, but also a very real branch of the country's economy, which was firmly established as civic pleasure in 1660 and even gave rise to places specifically reserved for smoking, so-called toebackskroegen .

Development of the smoking still life

The smoking still life is not like other types of still life ( flower still life , meal still life , etc.) a further development of a motif already known in painting, but an invention of Dutch still life painting of the 17th century. The earliest surviving still life dealing with smoking was painted by Pieter Claesz in 1622 and shows an arrangement of various objects viewed closely, the distribution of which on the table is reminiscent of early Flemish banquets - such as those of Osias Beert or Clara Peeters . In Claesz. ' Painting a white clay pipe leans against a beer glass, the coarse tobacco lies in front of it on a sheet of white paper; and the clay keg with the glowing coals is in the left rear part of the ensemble. The smoking utensils (clay pipe, tobacco, fuse and coal barrel) can be interpreted as symbolizing the sense of smell, as in Claesz. ' Five senses depiction from 1623 in the Louvre. However, the early 1622 painting calls for another essential reading. Thematically, it is a clear representation of vanitas , symbolized by activities such as drinking, playing cards and smoking. The painting shows that the motif of smoking was introduced into still life painting as a vain and meaningless activity. This becomes even more evident in Willem Claesz. Heda's painting in the Bredius Museum, in which the latter illustrated the importance of the smoking tools and the extinguished oil lamp through the presence of a skull.

The motif of smoking was often combined with similar vicious motifs. There are arrangements of smoking utensils combined with oyster meals, beer, wine and the popular remedy for the consequences of drinking - the curing herring. The connection of the motifs can be derived both from the common meaning as references to vanitas and from the visualization of actually combined foods.

The smoking still life formally followed the general development of still life painting. It appears in the canon of the Monochrome Banquetjes around 1630 - with artists such as Pieter Claesz., Willem Claesz. Heda and their successors - for example Maerten Boelema de Stomme. From the middle of the 17th century, the still life of smokers reflected the tendencies of increased monumentality and the emphasis on the effect of light - usually against a black background - for example in paintings by Edwaert Collier and Pieter van Anraedt. Many Amsterdam painters stand out in this context. Artists like Jan Jansz. Treck, Jan Jansz. van de Velde, Jan Fris and Jan Jansz. Ellinga still painted toebakjes - often with the light clay jug bearing the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam - when this motif had long since received less attention in other cities. In the German-speaking area, Georg Flegel once again emerges. His painting from around 1630 in the Frankfurt Historical Museum , which is often quoted in this context, shows that he dealt with this motif. He did this in his own typical way: the painting shows a Gouda clay pipe, a glowing fuse and tobacco on white paper in combination with a large Roman glass and two strawberries as an ensemble in a niche. The standardized coloring, which is otherwise atypical for Flegel, may reflect the influence of the clayey still lifes in Haarlem from this period. Flegel's smoking still life would be inconceivable without the Dutch toebakjes - just as the smoking still life was actually quite a Dutch affair.

literature

reference books

  • Hermain Bazin & Horst Gerson & Rolf Linnenkamp u. a .: Kinderl's painting lexicon . Kindler, Zurich 1985, pp. 282-286 (Volume 11).
  • General artist lexicon (AKL). The visual artists of all times and peoples. KG Saur, Munich and Leipzig 1991ff., ISBN 3-598-22740-X .
  • Walther Bernt: The Dutch Painters of the 17th Century. 800 artists with 1470 illus. 3 vol. Münchner Verlag, Munich 19XX.
  • Erika Gemar-Költzsch: Dutch still life painter in the 17th century. Luca-Verlag, Lingen 1995, ISBN 3-923641-41-9 .
  • Fred G. Meijer & Adriaan van der Willigen: A dictionary of Dutch and Flemish still-life painters working in oils. 1525-1725. Primavera Press, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-74310-85-0 .
  • Wolf Stadler u. a .: Lexicon of Art. Painting, architecture, sculpture. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1994, pp. 167-176 (volume 11).
  • Gerhard Strauss & Harald Olbrich: Lexicon of Art. Architecture, fine arts, applied arts, industrial design, art theory. Seemann, Leipzig 1994, pp. 64-67 (volume 7).
  • Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Leipzig 1907 to 1950.
  • Hans Vollmer: General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century added . Leipzig 1953 to 1962

Monographs and exhibition catalogs

  • Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century . Translated from the Swedish by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor. Faber & Faber, London 1956.
  • Pieter Biesboer (inter alia): Pieter Claesz: (1596 / 7-1660), Meester van het stilleven in de Gouden Eeuw. (Aust.cat .: Frans-Halsmuseum Haarlem 2005). Uitgeverij Waanders BV, Zwolle 2004, ISBN 90-400-9005-X .
  • Martina Brunner-Bulst: Pieter Claesz .: the main master of the Haarlemer still life in the 17th century. Critical oeuvre catalog. Luca-Verlag, Lingen 2004, ISBN 3-923641-22-2 .
  • Sybille Ebert-Schifferer : The history of still life , Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7774-7890-3 .
  • Claus Grimm : Still life. The Italian, Spanish and French masters . Belser, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-7630-2303-8 ; New edition 2001, 2010 ISBN 978-3-7630-2562-6
  • Claus Grimm : Still life. The Dutch and German masters . Belser, Stuttgart / Zurich 1988 ISBN 3-7630-1945-6 ; New edition 2001, 2010 ISBN 978-3-7630-2562-6
  • Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (eds.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe, Münster 1979.
  • Norbert Schneider: Still life. Reality and symbolism of things; the still life painting of the early modern period. Taschen, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-8228-0398-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. The paradox seems to lie in the fact that vicious subjects are represented in the artistically most beautiful and highest quality form possible, the sight of which, through the traces of impermanence that they bear, is intended to exhort the opposite virtue. “
    Sybille Ebert-Schifferer: The History of Still Life. (1998), pp. 130f.
  2. ^ Michael North: History of the Netherlands. (2003), p. 45 & Sybille Ebert-Schifferer: The history of still life. (1998), p. 130.
  3. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), pp. 130f.
  4. a b Sybille Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), pp. 130 & 132.
  5. Illustration in: Martina Brunner-Bulst: Pieter Claesz. (2004), cat. 4.
  6. Pieter Biesboer et al. a .: Pieter Claesz. (2004), p. 41.
  7. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer: The story of the still life. (1998), p. 129.
  8. ^ Action House Lempertz, Cologne, May 12, 2012