Cellar scene with happy monks.

Cellar Scene with Happy Monks by Simony Jensen, dated 1904, draws on a venerable tradition of Flemish and German genre painting that placed monks in cellars drinking wine — a subject combining wit about religious hypocrisy with the warm pleasures of conviviality and good wine. The happy monk drinking in the cellar had been a genre staple since at least the seventeenth century, and Jensen — who worked in a tradition closely related to Dutch and Flemish genre painting — treats the subject with good-humoured sympathy rather than satirical edge. The warm lamplight of the vaulted cellar creates a natural setting for the kind of tonal richness Jensen favoured.

Jensen deploys warm, rich tones suited to the candlelit cellar setting, the monks' robes and the wine-lit faces creating a harmonious palette of ochre and brown punctuated by the reds and deep purples of wine and candlelight. His handling of the convivial mood is direct and sympathetic, avoiding caricature.