The Last Drop
c. 1639 Philadelphia Museum of Art
About this artwork
This genre painting depicts a lively, smiling man holding a smoking pipe, seemingly enjoying life's pleasures, contrasted with a pensive man holding an hourglass and a skeleton holding a skull. It serves as a classic vanitas piece, reminding viewers of life's transience.
Did you know?
Judith Leyster was a highly skilled and successful female artist during the Dutch Golden Age, a rare feat in a male-dominated art world. This painting, also known as 'The Merry Company' or 'The Last Drop (The Memento Mori)', cleverly uses the hourglass and the smoking pipe as symbols of time running out and fleeting pleasures, a common moralistic theme during the Baroque era.
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The Last Drop
Judith Leyster, c. 1639
