The Merry Drinker

A genial fellow in a broad hat lifts a wine glass and gestures outward, mouth open mid-sentence, as if drawing us into his good cheer. Frans Hals paints the Merry Drinker entirely in flickering, slashing strokes that seem laid down as fast as the moment they capture - the glint on the glass, the flush of the cheek, the loose grip of the fingers. Now in the Rijksmuseum, it is the supreme example of his gift for the fleeting instant, a whole personality and a passing mood seized before they can settle.