Droll Smokers

Tor Kiefer, who had served as the deputy senior physician of his regiment during World War I, was a distinguished doctor in Kaiserslautern until his death in 1985. In addition, he became a renowned art critic and published various works of art criticism, including a book in 1976 on the Belgian painter James Ensor. In June 1974, Tor combined both his medical knowledge and his appreciation of Ensor in an article for the Deutsches Ärzteblatt (German Medical Journal) entitled "Drollige und weniger drollige Raucher" ("Droll and Not So Droll Smokers"). At the time of writing this article, Tor was 85 years old. An excerpt of the article is shown here.

Tor's book on Ensor, published in 1976

"Two years after the end of World War I", Tor writes, "peoples' habits changed to a different style - in fashion, drinking, society dances, diet. And women cut their hair short - a revolution! Some people are shocked. And even worse - ladies start to smoke. Nobody pays much attention any more when they smoke in cafés. But older people frown on it, associate it with the demimonde.

Ensor has a girlfriend who smokes. He doesn't want to know about it and presents her with his skulls. She, reacts, however, in a cocky, jokey manner - not now, please!

He paints a canvas, 29.5 by 25.25 cm. Augusta is portrayed seated, her hand raised and holding a lit cigarette. And what's also new - Augusta in a white blouse with a short skirt; you can see her legs, and she's wearing the cartwheel hat of the 1920s. She's about to put her cigarette to her mouth. But before she does, she looks at him impishly and says, "You're not going to tell me what to do!" On the other side, a man approaches her with a tray bearing a skull with a fat cigar between its teeth. At the bottom of the picture we see a skull with a pipe".

James Ensor, "Droll Smokers", 1920

"The faces of the main figures are extremely arresting", Tor continues. "Linear, distinctive, New Objectivity.* Of the old traditions, we can see the drapery of the curtains, the flowered carpet and in the foreground the plant tripod.

Ensor is a Janus; he oversees the past and the future. We are reminded of this painting when we see the advertisements of active non-smokers that appear today in newspapers and on posters, since we know more about bronchial carcinoma".

Tor's article in the
"Deutsches Ärzteblatt" in 1974

*New Objectivity:
In German: "Neue Sachlichkeit" emerged in Germany in the 1920s as a pseudo-Expressionist movement in the aftermath of World War I. It characterized the attitude of life in the Weimar Republic during the 1920s and spawned movements in literature, art, music and architecture.