The King Drinks

Jacob Jordaens

ca. 1645–50 · Red chalk with brush and gray, blue, and brown ink, and washes in the same colors over black chalk; remains of a black chalk framing line · Robert Lehman Collection

This drawing, most likely by a student or studio member of Jordaens’s workshop, combines two Flemish themes of families feasting that Jordaens explored in multiple versions late in his career. This domestic interior relates to popular representations of the Twelfth Night banquet. To celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings, families would often gather for a sumptuous meal, crowning a man king for a night. Characterized by uncouth behavior, such images often carried a moralizing warning against excess. This drawing shows a more restrained gathering, which suggests it also illustrates the whimsical secular proverb “As the Old Sing, So the Young Twitter.”

Artist

Jacob Jordaens

Date

ca. 1645–50

Medium

Red chalk with brush and gray, blue, and brown ink, and washes in the same colors over black chalk; remains of a black chalk framing line

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975