The Jolly Toper

Judith Leyster's Jolly Toper (c. 1629) in the Rijksmuseum depicts a laughing drinker raising his glass in a toast. The painting demonstrates Leyster's accomplished command of the genre tradition pioneered by Frans Hals, capturing the convivial atmosphere of Dutch tavern life with energy and wit. Her brushwork was confident enough that several of her works were attributed to Hals himself for centuries, and the attribution was only corrected after the discovery of her monogram. The Rijksmuseum acquired the work believing it to be by Hals, and the correction embarrassed the institution, prompting renewed scholarly attention to women artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Leyster's ability to capture the transient expression of laughter required rapid, assured execution that she mastered at a remarkably young age. After her marriage to Jan Molenaer in 1636, her independent artistic career essentially ended, making works such as this all the more significant as documentation of her exceptional early achievement before domestic responsibilities overtook her professional ambitions.

The drinker's animated expression and raised glass are rendered with bold, Hals-influenced brushwork, the warm palette and dramatic lighting creating an intimate scene of uninhibited merriment.