Un miliziano con un berkemeyer in mano, noto come 'Il bevitore allegro'

Around 1629 the Dutch Republic was in its Golden Age, newly rich and newly free of Spanish rule, and Frans Hals was painting Haarlem's citizens the way no one had before, as if he had just caught them mid-sentence. This man is a militiaman, a member of the civic guard, holding a berkemeyer, a wide green drinking glass. He is turning toward you, glass in hand, lips parted, about to say something or raise a toast. Get close and the whole thing dissolves into rapid, visible strokes, the collar built from a few flicks of white. Hals worked fast and left the speed on show, which is exactly why, two centuries later, the Impressionists claimed him as one of their own. No one knows the sitter's name.