The Sleeping Lady and The Tobacco Smoker

This diminutive genre painting depicts an aged couple - a woman calmly asleep, hands clasped in her lap, whilst a man leers towards her from behind, a lit tobacco pipe clutched in his fist. The expressions of the subjects are beautifully rendered; the woman calmly dozes, face devoid of any worldly anxieties that would plague her waking hours, whilst there is a hint of anger on the man’s face as he opens his mouth to speak. It is as if we are the spectator to the very start of a disagreement, with Verelst having captured this split second with his brushstrokes.

As with similar genre paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, it is likely that this painting carries a hidden moralistic value. The lady sleeping represents the sin of sloth, whilst the aggression of the man represents the sin of wrath. Furthermore, 17th century Dutch society held a negative perception of tobacco smoking, associating it with rowdiness and disorder - this idea is often reflected in similar genre paintings of the time, which often depict the predicaments of those who have smoked too much tobacco. Finally, the age of the couple likely acts as a form of vanitas, encouraging younger viewers to make the most of their life instead of developing into the sinful couple depicted in this painting.

Pieter Harmensz Verelst

The Dutch Golden Age painter Pieter Harmensz Verelst was born in the Netherlands in 1618. He painted a variety of subject matters, including a number of portraits, but is perhaps best known for his depictions of daily life including street and tavern scenes from Dutch and Italian villages. He died around 1668, leaving three sons, Simon, Herman and Johannes, who all followed in their father’s footsteps and became artists.