A Fool Holding a Jug (1629)

A Fool Holding a Jug, known as The Jolly Drinker is among Judith Leyster's earliest works. Ruddy faced and grinning drunkenly, the figure represents a popular Dutch stage character known as Pekelharing. Meaning 'pickled herring', his name references a Dutch speciality known for causing a raging thirst, which the clownish character tries to quench with beer. With an air of bravado, Leyster's drinker merrily raises his jug, tilting it precariously to signal that it is empty, and that the show is over. Another of the Jolly Drinker's vices is betrayed by the pipe and tobacco on the table beside him. In this period, drinking and the new habit of smoking were associated with vanity, rather than poor physical health.

Despite this moral message, the mood of the painting is cheerful. Leyster creates a lively sense of movement by seating the figure diagonally to break up the picture plane. Our attention is focused on the momentary expression on the drinker's face, framed by his jaunty beret and frivolous, oversized feather.

Decried Isaiah the prophet in chapter 5:11-12:

¶ Woe unto them, that rise up early to follow drunkenness, and to them that continue until night, till the wine do inflame them, and the harp and viol, timbrel and pipe, and wine are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the work of his hands.

To what extent drunkenness is intrinsically sinful, and to what extent it is wrong because it is the symptom of godlessness, and the cause of much else that is sinful, I am not certain. Yet those who lose control of themselves because of drink, regardless of how jolly it makes them, are fools.