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| Adriaen Brouwer |
He was about sixteen at that time. He worked in Haarlem in the workshop of Frans Hals (c. 1623-24). In 1631 he returned to Antwerp, became a member of the St. Lukas Guild and ran a small workshop. Brouwer was always in debt, even spending some months in prison. It was Rubens, who highly appreciated the artist and owned 17 of his pictures, who probably obtained Brouwer’s release.
The ordinary life of people was the central theme of the work of Adriaen Brouwer. He combined the subjects of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the stylistic influences of Frans Hals and Rubens with lively results. He specialized in genre scenes, which took place in dirty, small taverns and inns, visited by peasants, beggars, tramps… They drink, eat, play cards and dice, smoke, sing, fight. Spirit of vitality and careless trouble-making is combined with bitterness and emptiness.