The Merry Drinker
c. 1628–1630 · Oil on canvas · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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About this work
- Artist
- Frans Hals (1582–1666)
- Year
- c. 1628–1630
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 81 × 66.5 cm
- Collection
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Movement
- Dutch Golden Age
A bearded man in a leather jerkin, lace collar and a big black hat raises one hand mid-sentence and holds a berkemeyer glass of white wine in the other, as though about to propose a toast to whoever has just walked in. The medallion on his chest suggests a militiaman or soldier, and the Rijksmuseum now catalogues the picture as a militiaman holding a berkemeyer, known as The Merry Drinker. Hals painted it around 1628 to 1630 in his boldest rough manner: hatched, criss-crossing strokes, forms scratched into the wet paint with the brush handle, and a sense of speed that later painters, Manet among them, found irresistible. Whether it is a portrait of a real person or a type picture of a jolly toper has been argued for a century. It entered the museum's collection from a sale at Warmond Castle in 1816 and hangs in the Gallery of Honour in Amsterdam.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
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About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
