The painting is of five young men smoking
pipes and drinking
beer. At the time,
smoking was new and controversial. While the subjects have not been identified with certainty, it has been suggested the person in black and white apparel depicted on the right is painter
Jan de Heem; the person in the middle is
Joos van Craesbeeck; the person depicted blowing smoke out of his nose is painter
Jan Cossiers; and
Jan Lievens is the person on the far left. ==References==