In this painting Claesz. combines two still-life categories: a simple meal on a table and a “little tobacco” (toebackje). Herring, a modest fish praised as “Holland’s glory,” was caught locally while tobacco was imported in large quantities from the Americas. The smoking implements comprise an open tobacco tin, a brazier with glowing coals, slivers of wood that functioned as matches, and a pipe. Claesz. employed a distinctive monochrome palette. Avoiding bright tones, he used color subtly; notice the beer’s amber hue echoed in the earthenware brazier, or the herring’s silvery surface picked up by the pewter tobacco container.

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