Cheers!
The models of the
Joyful Drinker
, the
Laughing Child
and the
Merry Lute Player,
by Frans Hals (around 1583-1666), are launched at us, with the glass held out.
This master portraitist from the Dutch Golden Age, born in Antwerp, but who lived and worked in Haarlem, has the honors of the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam, after having triumphed at the National Gallery, in London (more than 92,000 paying visitors less four months) and before the Gemäldegalerie, in Berlin.
His society of bon vivants, ruddy cheeks, bright eyes and smiles that sometimes amount to laughter, is a pleasure to see.
Haarlem, via the Spaarne River, is connected to the North Sea.
It was therefore from the beginning a city of shipowners, textile manufacturers, long-distance traders... and brewers (150 in the Middle Ages, 50 in the first half of the 17th century).
Hence, on the walls of the Rijksmuseum, these little fishermen and these heavy drinkers, these tankards, glasses or flutes, these satins and these damasks.
But also, in this journey which brings together…
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