A Soldier Smoking a Pipe

c. 1657/1658

Frans van Mieris

Painter, Dutch, 1635 - 1681

A pale-skinned, bearded man sits at a table set in front of a window and smokes a pipe in this vertical painting. Light pours in from the window and leaves much of the room behind the man in deep shadow. The man’s body is angled to our left, and he rests his right elbow, also to our left, on the table and looks steadily at us. The man has a round face with rosy cheeks and a copper-red beard. His dark, gold-edged hat rolls back away from his face, creating an upward flounce. His cream-white, lace-edged collar lies across his shoulders over a gorget, the piece of silver armor that encircles the neck and comes to a point over the chest. His plum-purple sleeveless jacket and loose, knee-length britches have a sheen. Voluminous white sleeves are covered with strips of black and golden yellow fabric, and yellow fabric flares like a mini cape behind the sleeve we see. The man wears a tawny-brown glove on his left hand, to our right. That hand rests on his hip with the palm facing out. He holds the long, white clay pipe to his lips with his other ungloved hand. A wisp of smoke rises from a burning ember at the end of the pipe. The man’s pants are edged with gold around the bottom hem, which fall loosely around teal-green stockings. His slouchy black boots have square toes, and the tops fall down to reveal crimson-red undersides. A brass band wraps across the arch of the foot closer to us, and a star-shaped spur projects off the back. The man sits on a three-legged stool with a triangular seat. More armor, a horn, and a banner with fringed edges lie in a heap in the bottom right corner of the painting. To the left, a playing card, a seven of hearts, lies face up near a second chair, this one wood with a seat upholstered in iron gray. A forest-green cloak edged with gold fringe is draped over the high back of that seat, and a staff with a metal finial leans against the cloak. The seat and stool face a table mostly covered with a sage-green cloth. More playing cards, three more white clay pipes, a tall glass of beer, a clay pot, and a white jug with a narrow silver lid sit on the table. A sack and perhaps a firearm hang on the wall to the left of the arched window, which is set in the thick gray wall. The floor is wood plank, and the space behind the man falls into shadow but appears to be empty. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed his name on the side of the chair with the cloak: “FvMieris.”

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Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) was one of the most celebrated Leiden fijnschilders ("fine painters"), whose elegant works are marked by smooth execution, invisible brushwork, and extraordinary attention to detail. Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), with whom Van Mieris studied, described him as “the prince of all my pupils.” His small paintings of convivial genres, portraits, and allegories with their lively, often ambiguous narratives delighted both local and international collectors. This painting’s first known owner was Augustus the Strong (1670–1733), elector of Saxony and king of Poland, and remained in the Dresden collection until 1927.

Soldier Smoking a Pipe, which dates from about 1657/1658, encompasses all the qualities that earned Van Mieris his fame. The intimate scale of this extraordinarily well-preserved painting, its high degree of refinement (particularly in the soldier’s aubergine costume and the gold fringe of the nearby cloak), and its engaging subject are all characteristics of his finest works. The soldier is most likely a member of the local militia company, judging by the trumpet, banner, and armor on the floor. By the late 1650s, militia companies had a largely ceremonial role and were often called on by their cities to parade during times of celebration. The soldier’s knowing gaze, paired with the deck of cards, half a glass of beer, and empty chair, suggest the aftermath of such an event, and invite the viewer to imagine a humorous, if unexplained, storyline.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 50-C

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony [1670-1733, also King Augustus II of Poland], Dresden;[1] by descent through the Kings of Saxony to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden;[2] deaccessioned and exchanged 1927 with (Galerie Van Diemen, Berlin);[3] sold 20 October 1927 to August Neuerburg [1884-1944], Hamburg;[4] by descent in the Neuerburg family; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 9 July 2008, no. 28); (Richard Green, London) and (Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London); sold 2008 to private collection, England; purchased April 2016 through (Johnny Van Haeften, London) by NGA.
[1] The painting arrived at the NGA in a frame that bears the cypher of Augustus the Strong. During the reign of his son and successor, Augustus III (1696–1763), paintings from this collection were given gilt frames fitted with glass-fronted doors for protection. The doors could be opened with a key, which enabled the elector and his privileged guests to the study the paintings closely. In the 1880 and 1912 catalogues of the Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden, the painting is noted as being in the 1722 inventory of the collection.
[2] In late 19th and early 20th century catalogues of the royal collection (1880, 1896, 1902, 1905, 1912), the painting has either or both the numbers 1588 and 1747, and is noted as being number 1553 in the 1753 inventory prepared by Pietro Guarienti. In 1901, the painting was hanging in Room 16 of the right wing, first floor of the Zwinger.
[3] The Van Mieris and other paintings from the Dresden collection were exchanged in return for Giambattista Tiepolo's Triumph of Amphitrite.
[4] Sotheby's London office located a copy of Galerie van Diemen's 1927 sales invoice for the painting, which gives Neuerburg's address as Elbchaussee 77 in Blankenese/Hamburg, and is annotated with a note indicating the bill was paid in early 1928. A painting by Rubens in Sotheby's sale of old masters on 6 July 2016 in London was also previously owned by August Neuerburg. The history of ownership section of the catalogue note for the painting (lot number 7) includes this description of the collector: "August Neuerburg was a scion of a dynasty of tobacco merchants, originally from the village of Wittlich, but established in Cologne by the mid-nineteenth century, whence branches and factories were opened all over Germany. The firm established a raw tobacco warehouse in Hamburg in the early 1920s, and August settled there, buying a house at Elbchaussee 77 in the former riverside village of Blankenese, by then a suburb of Hamburg. He seems to have bought most of his pictures in a burst of activity within a remarkably short period of time between 1927 and 1930."

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2021

  • Clouds, Ice, and Bounty: The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Collection of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2021, no. 18, repro.

Bibliography

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 1(1829):no. 76.

1848

  • Siret, Adolphe. Dictionnaire historique des peintres de toutes les écoles. Brussels, 1848: 603.

1861

  • Blanc, Charles, et al. Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles. 14 vols. 1861-1876. Ecole hollandaise. 3 vols. Paris, : 23.

1863

  • Parthey, Gustav Friedrich. Deutscher Bildersaal. Verzeichniss der in Deutschland vorhandenen Oelbilder verstorbener Maler aller Schulen. 2 vols. Berlin, 1863-1864: 2(1864):127, no. 15.

1878

  • Lemcke, Carl. "Frans van Mieris." In Robert Dohme, ed. Kunst und Künstler, Deutschlands und der Niederlände bis um die Mitte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1878: 23.

1880

  • Hübner, Julius. Verzeichnis der Königlichen Gemälde-Gallerie zu Dresden. Dresden, 1880: no. 1588.

  • Gower, Lord Ronald. The Figure Painters of Holland. London, 1880: 112.

1887

  • Champlin, John Denison, Jr., and Charles C. Perkins, eds. Cyclopedia of painters and paintings. 4 vols. New York, 1887: 3:265.

1896

  • Woermann, Karl. Katalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Dresden. Dresden, 1896: 569, no. 1747(1588).

1902

  • Woermann, Karl. Katalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Dresden. Dresden, 1902: 562, no. 1747(1588).

1905

  • Woermann, Karl. Katalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Dresden. Dresden, 1905: 560, no. 1747(1588).

1906

  • Addison, Julia de Wolf. The Art of the Dresden Gallery. Boston, 1906: 316.

  • Wurzbach, Alfred von. Niederlandisches Kunstler-Lexikon. 3 vols. Vienna, 1906-1911: 2(1910):165.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 1(1907):27, no. 93.

1912

  • Gemäldegalerie (Dresden, Germany). Katalog der Königlichen Gemäldegalerie zu Dresden. Dresden and Berlin, 1912: 172, no. 1747.

1927

  • Williamson, George Charles, ed. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. 5 vols. London, 1927: 5:336.

1932

  • Hourticq, Louis. Hollande en Histoire Générale de l'Art. Paris, 1932: 306.

1960

  • Plietzsch, Eduard. Holländische und flämische Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1960: 52.

1977

  • Vries, Lyckle de. "Jan Steen, 'de kluchtschilder'." Ph.D. dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen, 1977: 47, 128, no. 73.

1981

  • Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635-1681), the Elder. 2 vols. Doornspijk, 1981: 1:44, 2:17, no. 13, pl. 13.

2005

  • Buvelot, Quentin. Frans van Mieris, 1635-1681. Exh. cat. Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2005-2006. The Hague, Washington, and Zwolle, 2005: 84, pl. 5b.

Inscriptions

on the side of the chair: FvMieris

Wikidata ID

Q46624940

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