Circle of Jacob Adriaensz Backer
Portrait of a man smoking a pipe (The Sense of Smell)
Property from a New York Estate
Circle of Jacob Adriaensz Backer
Portrait of a man smoking a pipe (The Sense of Smell)
oil on panel
panel: 28 ⅜ by 23 ¾ in.; 72 by 60.5 cm.
framed: 37 by 33 in.; 94 by 83.8 cm.
This panel has been cradled and seems stable. The surface of the painting is under a very glossy varnish, slightly yellowed. Overall the painting appears to be in quite nice state with beautiful creamy application of the paint throughout the composition. The glazes seem to be intact for the most part. The thick glossy varnish renders the UV somewhat ineffective, although some restorations appear to be visible along the join, a 1/3rd of the way from the left edge underneath his hand, his proper right shoulder. But overall there doesn't seem to be much. Offered in a 20th century gilt Regènce style frame.
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This painting of a man smoking a pipe—a representation of the allegory of smell—seems to be a period copy after a now lost original by Jacob Adriaensz Backer that once formed part of a series of five works, each illustrating one of the senses. The original series included Backer’s Old Man Holding a Mirror Fragment (Allegory of Sight)1 and his Drinker (Allegory of Taste),2 both of which are today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, as well as probably his Violin Player (Allegory of Hearing) in the Szépmüveszéti Múzeum, Budapest.3 His Allegory of Touch has not been located, and his Allegory of Smell is known only through the present copy. This series by Backer seems to have proven successful. In addition to the present painting, copies are known of the Allegory of Taste and the Allegory of Hearing,4 suggesting that there were likely several complete series of senses made after Backer’s original set made by members of his workshop, circle, later imitators.
Throughout the twentieth century, this portrait was published by art historians such as Bauch and Sumowski as an original work by Jacob Adriaensz Backer, and at times it was supposed that the model for the young man smoking was Adriaen Brouwer.
1. Van den Brink 2008, cat. no. A29. Oil on panel, 71.5 by 60 cm, inv. no. 935B. http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=871547&viewType=detailView
2. Van den Brink 2008, cat. no. A30. Oil on panel, 71.5 by 60 cm, inv. no. 935A. http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=870501&viewType=detailView
3. Van den Brink 2008, cat. no. A31. Oil on panel, 73 by 62 cm, inv. no. 68.11. https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/the-violinist-the-allegory-of-hearing/
4. At least three versions are known of the Allegory of Taste, one by Backer's workshop in a private collection and three others by various hands. See Van den Brink 2008 under cat. no. A30 (a,b,c). Of the Allegory of Hearing, one workshop copy was offered at the Dorotheum, Vienna, 21 October 2014, lot 78, and another later copy on the market in France in 2012.