A pale-skinned, bearded man sits at a table set in front of a window and smokes a pipe in this vertical painting. Light pours in from the window and leaves much of the room behind the man in deep shadow. The man’s body is angled to our left, and he rests his right elbow, also to our left, on the table and looks steadily at us. The man has a round face with rosy cheeks and a copper-red beard. His dark, gold-edged hat rolls back away from his face, creating an upward flounce. His cream-white, lace-edged collar lies across his shoulders over a gorget, the piece of silver armor that encircles…
Gallery mode Full size at the museum

Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.

A Soldier Smoking a Pipe

painter Frans van Mieris (Dutch, 1635 - 1681)

c. 1657/1658

Medium
oil on panel
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 32.4 × 25.4 cm (12 3/4 × 10 in.)
Culture
Dutch
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CNE-B
Credit line
The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art