The Smoker, ca. 1623?25, Oil on wood, Octagonal, 18 3/8 x 19 1/2 in. (46. 7 x 49. 5 cm), Paintings, Frans Hals (Dutch, Antwerp 1582/83?1666 Haarlem), The loose brushwork on this octagonal panel?its original shape?captures the bustle of a tavern interior as caught in a corner of the viewer's eye. Although the painting's attribution to Hals has been questioned occasionally, the execution is entirely typical of his less ambitious genre pictures dating from the 1620s