Peeckelhaeringh

The grinning man in red and yellow is not a portrait of anyone. He is Peeckelhaeringh, or Pickled Herring, a stock buffoon from the Dutch comic theatre of the day, a glutton whose taste for salty herring left him with a thirst he could never quench, which is why he lifts his foaming beer toward us. Hals painted a whole cast of these theatrical folk types, laughing drinkers and fools caught mid-gesture. What made them feel alive was his brushwork, quick, loose and left visible, dashed on so freely that up close the collar and the fingers dissolve into strokes. Step back and the drunken toast snaps into focus, mouth open, eyes bright, mug tipping your way.