Drunken Peasants

Brouwer’s earliest work must be placed around 1625-26. It stands out for its bright local colour, with noticeable accents of red and pink. The composition consists of a compact group in the foreground of a fairly large number of figures resembling Bruegelesque caricatures. In indoor scenes, such as the Drunken Peasants, it is noticeable how little these compositions are integrated in their surrounding space.

The present painting depicts the interior of an inn with a group of drinking, smoking and singing peasants around a table. In the foreground a drunken woman has fallen asleep, a crying child pulls her arm. A peasant on the left sits on a barrel and stops a pipe, on the right side of the table another person lights his pipe.