The Smoker

Van Gogh's The Smoker, painted at Arles in 1888 and now at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, depicts a man with a pipe — a subject he had returned to since his Nuenen days, when pipe-smoking working men were among his most characteristic portrait subjects. The Arles version brings his southern palette and fully developed technique to a figure type he knew intimately from Dutch painting. The Barnes Foundation's holding places this alongside one of the world's greatest collections of Post-Impressionist painting, where it can be seen in the context Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso.

The smoker's face is rendered with Van Gogh's mature portrait directness — the pipe and the expression of a man enjoying a quiet moment observed with warmth and specificity. His Arles palette brings warm color to the face. The smoke rising from the pipe may provide an atmospheric element in the upper portion of the composition. Brushwork is confident and direct throughout.