A Man Smoking 

Adriaen van Ostade, a Dutch Golden Age painter, created this oil on panel painting, titled ‘A Man Smoking,’ sometime between 1630 and 1684. Here, a man is caught in a private moment of consumption. Tobacco, newly globalized, reflects a changing world, even for those on the margins of Dutch society. Ostade often depicted peasants and working-class people. But it’s important to consider the power dynamics involved: Who has the authority to represent whom? Is this portrait an act of observation or an act of judgment? Tobacco use in the 17th century was loaded with social meaning. The painting invites us to reflect on the cultural and economic contexts of such practices. It pushes us to consider how pleasure, class, and identity intersect and how these themes continue to resonate today.