Lietuvos istorijos institutas

The article addresses the theme of peasants in the work of Pranciškus Smuglevičius (Franciszek Smuglewicz, 1745–1807) and discusses the most significant works on this theme extant in the collections of Lithuania and Poland. Special attention is devoted to the compositions depicting two Cracowians in a tavern. It is noted that a group of paintings of a similar composition exists and most of them are attributed to P. Smuglevičius. In this article, an attempt is made to figure out which works were painted by P. Smuglevičius himself, which paintings should be attributed to copies, and how the abundance of versions of this small modest composition can be explained. A discussion of the examples of the image of Cracowian peasants in other fields of eighteenth-century culture revealed that, unlike P. Smuglevičius’s numerous earlier works on the peasant theme, Cracowians in a Tavern is not just a manifestation of his interest in the life and daily round of the third estate. This composition can be read as an allegoric painting that hides a generalised picture of the peasantry as an inseparable part of the nation under a “mask” of an everyday scene and a study of folk types.