The Last Drop (The Gay Cavalier)

Gallery 364, European Art 1500-1850, third floor

Main Building

The Last Drop (The Gay Cavalier)

c. 1629

Judith Leyster (Dutch (active Haarlem and Amsterdam), 1609–1660)

The costume that the standing figure wears over his clothes suggests that the setting is vastenavond, the night before the beginning of Lent, when people frequently went on binges in order to prepare themselves for fasting and abstinence. This painting speculates on the consequences of such overindulgence. In their dissipated state, the gay cavalier and his companion ignore the menacing presence of the skeleton, which bears an ominous hourglass in one bony hand and a skull in the other.

Gallery 364, European Art 1500-1850, third floor

Object Details

Title:

The Last Drop (The Gay Cavalier)

Date:

c. 1629

Artist:

Judith Leyster (Dutch (active Haarlem and Amsterdam), 1609–1660)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

35 1/16 × 28 15/16 inches (89.1 × 73.5 cm) Framed: 42 1/2 × 36 × 3 1/4 inches (108 × 91.4 × 8.3 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

John G. Johnson Collection, 1917

Accession Number:

Cat. 440

Geography:

Made in Netherlands, Europe

Provenance

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Gallery 364, European Art 1500-1850, third floor

Main Building

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