Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer

Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer is a painting by Frans Hals showing a Kannekijker (mug-looker). Someone looking into a mug refers to an old Dutch word for a glutton, greedy for more. This visual theme was also used to depict sight as one of the five senses, and various people have argued about whether this portrait was meant as one in a series of the five senses along with Two Boys singing for hearing and a variant version of The Smoker for smell:

Two laughing boys with mug of beer, c.1626 Oil on canvas, 69 x 56.5 cm
ArtistFrans Hals
Year1626 (1626)
CatalogueSeymour Slive, Catalog 1974: #60
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions68 cm × 56.5 cm (27 in × 22.2 in)
LocationHofje van Mevrouw van Aerden, Leerdam
AccessionBr.L.4

Hals has an accomplice peering over his shoulder, and besides the other two paintings already mentioned, this theme of a main subject with a secondary witness was common to many of his paintings of the 1620s:

  • The Smoker, with an accomplice on the left and another in the background on the right
  • Two Boys singing, with an accomplice on the left
  • Yonker Ramp and his sweetheart, with an accomplice on the right
  • The evangelist Matthew and the angel, with an accomplice on the left

The theme of looking into a mug was also used by Hals when he painted the portrait of Peeckelhaeringh who turns to the viewer to show his mug. This painting of two laughing boys with mug of beer is in the collection of the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden and was stolen on 27 April 2011, but was recovered on 28 October 2011.[1]

See also

References
  1. Lachende jongen met tinnen kan in the RKD
  • Frans Hals', a catalogue raisonné of Hals works by Seymour Slive: Volume Three, the catalogue, National gallery of Art: Kress Foundation, Studies in the History of European Art, London - Phaidon Press, 1974
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