Pipe Smoker Leaning on a Table

[1][2][3] It depicts a peasant (almost certainly Paulin Paulet) smoking a clay pipe whilst leaning on a table at the Jas-de-Bouffan, the painter's family estate.

At the right, it seems that part of the same painter's work Woman with a Cafetière is visible (Musée d'Orsay).

The painter returned to the theme several times, most notably with The Pipe Smoker (Hermitage Museum).

The work formed part of Sergei Shchukin's collection, having been sold to him by Ambroise Vollard in 1913.

Shchukin's whole collection was seized by the Soviet state in spring 1918 and Pipe Smoker was initially assigned to the Museum of Modern Western Art in Moscow, before moving to its present home in 1948.