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000065 Purma Klinv El. Pin(?), The Couple in the Tavern, 1809, oil on wood, 40 × 35 cm

A young man is depicted sitting at a table as a girl serves him wine or beer from a glass bottle. The man has a wooden cane resting on his chair while holding a bone pipe in his hands. There appears to be food on the plate in front of him. At the bottom right, a white dog is looking towards the viewer. The scene takes place in an open space, possibly the exterior of a tavern, since trees and the sky can be seen in the background on the right. The first impression is that the unknown painter is dealing with an everyday scene, a man having lunch in a tavern. The presence of the animal, however, sometimes used as a symbol of marital fidelity and sometimes of animalistic erotic desire, possibly conceals an allegory, as was common in 17th and 18th century art. That being the case, we are probably watching the client's attempted erotic approach to the young woman. Then again, perhaps the scene is a re-approximation of the parable of the Prodigal Son (not infrequently, such scenes concealed religious allegories). The Gallery painting should be dated to the first half of the 19th century and attributed to a minor artist with knowledge of Neoclassical painting and Dutch Baroque art.