Boy with a glass and a lute

Frans Hals painted Boy with a Glass and a Lute around 1625, a tronie combining music and drink — two of the most popular subjects in the Dutch genre tradition — within a single animated figure. The boy holds both instruments of pleasure with the ease of one accustomed to their enjoyment, his expression open and unguarded. The subject relates to the broader tradition of the senses paintings in which different pleasures — sight, sound, smell, taste, touch — were represented through associated objects and activities, here combining hearing (the lute) and taste (the glass). Hals renders the combined pleasures with the warm, direct brushwork of his mature style.

The youth's animated expression and the gleaming glass are captured with Hals's signature rapid brushwork, the loose handling creating an impression of spontaneous vitality and musical energy.