(Haarlem circa 1610–1668)
A cavalier drinking and smoking,
oil on panel, 55.5 x 46.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Belgium

Literature:
probably D. Weller, Jan Miense Molenaer (c. 1609/1610-1668). The life and art of a seventeenth-century Dutch painter, ms. diss., College Park 1992, p. 106, illustrated (as Jan Miense Molenaer)

The present composition shows a nonchalant, colourfully-dressed soldier or mercenary, recognisable by the gorget around his neck and the handle of his sword. The soldier’s red hat is decorated lavishly with three different-coloured feathers and a shimmering pin. Holding a glass of beer and smoking imported tobacco out of a Gouda clay pipe, the soldier leans comfortably on a table with a green tablecloth on which a Cologne beer jug, known as a Bartmann, a terra cotta bowl with coals, and a clay pipe are visible. The soldier could very well be a mercenary, who served during the Eighty Years’ War on the side of the Northern Provinces led by William of Orange, during the early days of the war. 

Jan Miense Molenaer was principally active in Haarlem where he married in 1636 to one of todays most renowned female Dutch painters, Judith Leyster, a pupil of Frans Hals. The couple had children and settled in Amsterdam for twelve years before moving back to the area of Haarlem. Molenaer was celebrated for his genre subjects of rural interiors in muted tones with small figures.

The present painting relates to an autograph work by the artist currently conserved in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. no. 442).