Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer

This painting featured on the cover of the 1937 Frans Hals exhibition catalog of the Frans Hals museum

Two laughing boys with mug of beer is a painting by Frans Hals showing a Kannekijker (mug-looker). Someone looking into a mug refers to an old Dutch word for a glutton, greedy for more. This visual theme was also used to depict sight as one of the five senses, and various people have argued about whether this portrait was meant as one in a series of the five senses along with Two Boys singing for hearing and a variant version of The Smoker for smell:

Hals has an accomplice peering over his shoulder, and besides the other two paintings already mentioned, this theme of a main subject with a secondary witness was common to many of his paintings of the 1620s:

• 
  The Smoker, with an accomplice on the left and another in the background on the right
• 
  Two Boys singing, with an accomplice on the left
• 
  Yonker Ramp and his sweetheart, with an accomplice on the right
• 
  The evangelist Matthew and the angel, with an accomplice on the left

The theme of looking into a mug was also used by Hals when he painted the portrait of Peeckelhaeringh who turns to the viewer to show his mug. This painting of two laughing boys with mug of beer is in the collection of the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden and was stolen on 27 April 2011, but was recovered on 28 October 2011.^[1]

See also

• List of paintings by Frans Hals

References

• Frans Hals', a catalogue raisonné of Hals works by Seymour Slive: Volume Three, the catalogue, National gallery of Art: Kress Foundation, Studies in the History of European Art, London - Phaidon Press, 1974

Frans Hals
Paintings	Portrait of a Woman Standing The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616 Shrovetide Revellers Portrait of a Woman Standing (Kassel) The Rommelpot Player Two Singing Boys with a Lute and a Music Book Catharina Both-van der Eem Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart Laughing Cavalier The Lute Player Laughing Boy with Flute Laughing Boy with a Flute Boy with a Glass and a Lute The Smoker The Fingernail Test The Gypsy Girl St. John St. Matthew St. Luke St. Mark Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword Laughing Boy Cunera van Baersdorp¨ Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa Portrait of Anna van der Aar Young Man with a Skull The Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1627 The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627 Portrait of a Woman in a Chair Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer Laughing Fisherboy Peeckelhaeringh The Merry Drinker Malle Babbe Smiling Fishergirl Fisher Boy with Basket The Fisher Boy Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen Cornelia Claesdr Voogt The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633 Portrait of a Man with a Beer Jug Portrait of a Man in a Yellowish-Gray Jacket Catharina Brugmans Feyntje Steenkiste Hylck Boner Meagre Company Portrait of a Woman (Marie Larp) Pieter Tjarck Claes Duyst van Voorhout Maria Pietersdr Olycan Maritge Claesdr. Voogt The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639 Portrait of Dorothea Berck Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse
Catalogs raisonné	1974 1989
Other	Dutch Golden Age painting Haarlem School (painting) Tronie Naturalism (art) Flemish Baroque painting
Related	Karel van Mander (teacher) Dirck Hals (brother) Harmen Hals (son) Frans Hals Junior (son) Jan Hals (son) Reynier Hals (son) Nicolaes Hals (son) Théophile Thoré-Bürger Seymour Slive Claus Grimm
Public collections	Frans Hals Museum Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Mauritshuis