The Smokers  1636

The Fleming Brouwer worked in Haarlem and Amsterdam before joining the Antwerp painters' guild in 1621–32. HIs sheer talent and flair for human comedy earned the short-lived artist the esteem of Rubens and Rembrandt. In this famous picture, Brouwer himself (center foreground) plays one of his usual tavern habitués, with the still-life painter Jan de Heem (right) and more d...