Peasants Carousing in a Tavern

Adriaen Brouwer (Flemish, 1606–1638)

about 1630

Medium/TechniqueOil on panel

Dimensions33.3 x 49.2 cm (13 1/8 x 19 3/8 in.)

Credit LineErnest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund

Accession number56.1185

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Provenance1790 (?), bought in Paris by Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston (b. 1739 - d. 1802), Broadlands, near Romsey, Hampshire, England [see note 1]; remained at Broadlands and passed by descent to Wilfred William Ashley, Baron Mount Temple (b. 1867 - d. 1939), Broadlands; to his daughter, Edwina Cynthia Annette Mounbatten (b. 1901 - d. 1960), Broadlands. 1949, sold by Joseph (probably Captain Vivian Joseph) to W.E. Duits, Ltd. on behalf of 17th Century Masters, Ltd., London; 1956, sold by Duits to the MFA for £5,000. (Accession Date: December 13, 1956)

NOTES:
[1] That the painting may have been bought in 1790 in Paris is according to Gerard Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work (The Hague, 1962), p. 58. Palmerston is also known to have purchased a number of paintings during a visit to Paris in 1791. In his study Portrait of a Golden Age: Intimate Papers of the Second Viscount Palmerston, Courtier under George III (Boston, 1958), Brian Connell notes that Palmerston was buying and selling Dutch pictures--including works by Brouwer--even earlier, in the decade after his first Grand Tour (1763-1764).