I only ever remember one person in our family, an uncle of mine, who smoked a pipe. We have no photos of him, nor of me with a child's pipe for blowing bubbles.
Our prompt picture shows a former Prime Minister (Harold Wilson) well known for his pipe. In 1965 he was British Pipe Smokers Council's Pipe Smoker of the Year.
In 2013 the BBC ran a tribute to mark the 50th anniversary of him becoming the leader of the Labour Party. It was strange to hear that producers of the programme told guests to play down Wilson's pipe smoking habit.
Perhaps they should have listened to Albert Einstein.
Einstein - with his pipe
Einstein once said, "I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement in human affairs."
The list of famous pipe smokers is endless and includes artists and literary figures. Van Gogh painted a self-portrait of course.
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| Van Gogh - Self-portrait with pipe (Sept-Nov 1886) |
Renoir's painting of Claude Monet reading showed him enjoying a pipe.
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| Claude Monet Reading - 1873 |
Perhaps you do not know that there is even an illustration of the Mona Lisa smoking a pipe.
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| La Joconde fumant la pipe (Arthur Sappeckikus 1883) |
"The Man with the Twisted Lip" appeared in The Strand Magazine in December 1891. I'm sure you will recognise the figure involved. It's elementary after all.
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| Sherlock Holmes (By Albert Sidney Paget) |
The original caption was "The pipe was still between his lips."
But one of my favourite characters has always been Popeye The Sailor Man
To see pipe smokers that have inspired others check out the links at Sepia-Saturday-235.
12 comments:
So clever! My favorite artists were pipe smokers, wuddayaknow. And Popeye, well just thanks for including ol' Popeye.
That's quite a fine collection of pipe smokers! But Mona Lisa? Well, maybe? Who knows for sure?
My father smoked a pipe, but I don't have any pictures of him with it.
Once again, a post this week is making me consider taking up the pipe.
Thoroughly enjoyable and apart from the lady they all look very intelligent. I wonder if there is a cause and effect relationship !
Seems to me that one of the characters in Pogo (Walt Kelley's wonderful comic strip) smoked a pipe...but I can't remember who! Fun post...
I was searching for famous pipe smokers too and totally overlooked Popeye. Did you ever see the movie starring Robin Williams? It was panned by many but brilliant in my opinion. Perfect casting.
Your post has reminded me that my uncle and father both smoked a pipe for a short period of time when I was a child. I loved the smell!
Great theme for you to follow...and well done at that. Pipes do have a great history, and I think I like that a man smoking one has something in his hand, cradled if you will, whenever he might need to speak...otherwise it's pretty impossible to talk while smoking (at least so others might understand).
A nice quirky twist on the prompt Bob. Thank goodness not many people smoke pipes these days; I can’t stand them.
Sherlock looks quite wistful in that image and it was lovely to be reminded of Popeye - I'd forgotten he smoked a pipe!
Good on you for finding all these famous pipe smokers.
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