# The Merry Drinker

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/the-merry-drinker-r5ef850fbb1fd13>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [HALS, Frans](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2>)
- Date: 1601-1650
- Technique: Oil on canvas, 81 x 66,5 cm

## Commentary

The Merry Drinker is painted in a bright, blond tonality which anticipates nineteenth-century Impressionism in its most brilliant manifestations. Manet must have been particularly impressed by this painting. The picture also shows Hals supreme mastery of one of the principal preoccupations of Baroque artists: the rendering of instantaneous emotion and movement. No seventeenth-century artist surpassed Hals in this fields. The realism and illusionism of Caravaggio and his followers look forced compared to Hals, and Rubens and van Dyck do not convey a comparable intensity in the suggestion of a fleeting instant packed with vitality. Hals&#39;s vigorous concentration on this was more than an ordinary rendering of reality. He selected moments when human nature reveals all its vital energy. Most frequently he shows the instant when the joy of life is at its highest. &lt;P&gt; &lt;TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR=&#34;\#99CCCC&#34;&gt; &lt;TR VALIGN=MIDDLE&gt;&lt;TD&gt;&lt;IMG SRC=&#34;/support/gif/listen.gif&#34; BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE&gt; Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 5 minutes\):&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A HREF=&#34;\#&#34; onClick=&#34;w=window.open \(&#39;/music1/19\_cent/nicolai\_windsor\_drinking.html&#39;, &#39;newWin&#39;, &#39;scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350&#39;\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true&#34;&gt;&lt;B&gt;Otto Nicolai: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor \(The Merry Wives of Windsor\), drinking song&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/A&gt; &lt;/TD&gt;&lt;/TR&gt;&lt;/TABLE&gt;

## Related artworks

- [A Young Man in a Large Hat](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/a-young-man-in-a-large-hat-ra915e45929c8d8>)
- [Andries van der Horn](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/andries-van-der-horn-r51e52c7057c1a8>)
- [Anetta Hanemans](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/anetta-hanemans-rb954a6cd85c10b>)
- [Anna van der Aar](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/anna-van-der-aar-r89a0ca6330b269>)
- [Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard Company](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/banquet-of-the-officers-of-the-st-george-civic-guard-company-rfa51a8a588530d>)
- [Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard \(detail\)](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/banquet-of-the-officers-of-the-st-george-civic-guard-detail-r19aaec246163c6>)
- [Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/banquet-of-the-officers-of-the-st-george-civic-guard-rbd55b896ad9f70>)
- [Banquet of the Officers of the St Hadrian Civic Guard Company](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/banquet-of-the-officers-of-the-st-hadrian-civic-guard-company-rf868fbab150355>)
- [Boy holding a Flute \(Hearing\)](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/boy-holding-a-flute-hearing-rc068bbc855fc0f>)
- [Boy Playing a Violin](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/boy-playing-a-violin-rfe3e1c5bacd5a5>)
- [Boy with a Lute](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/boy-with-a-lute-ra1e72bdd154fe0>)
- [Buffoon Playing a Lute](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hals-frans-r70576a8b6d10d2/buffoon-playing-a-lute-r533f92c43fd390>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)