''Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by Frans Hals, created ''c.'' 1626, 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: File:Frans Hals 072.jpg File:Frans Hals - Two Boys Singing - WGA11077.jpg Hals has included an accomplice peering over the central figure's 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: File:The Smoker MET DP146499.jpg, '' The Smoker'', with an accomplice on the left and another in the background on the right File:1623 Hals Junger Mann und Frau in einem Gasthaus anagoria.JPG, '' Yonker Ramp and his sweetheart'', with an accomplice on the right File:Frans Hals - St Matthew - Museum of Western European and Oriental Art, Odessa.jpg, '' 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. The painting of two laughing boys with mug of beer is in the collection of the

Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden The Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden is a museum and former hofje in Leerdam, Netherlands, on the Kerkstraat (numbers 57 and 89). It was built during the years 1770-1772 on the former location of the "Kasteel van Leerdam", a castle that was destroye ...

. It has been stolen three times in 1988, 2011, and 2020. After it was stolen on 27 April 2011, it was recovered on 28 October 2011. It was reported stolen again on 27 August 2020 from the

museum in

Leerdam Leerdam () is a city and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The municipality was merged with the municipalities of Vianen and Zederik on 1 January 2019. The name of the new municipality is Vijfheerenlan ...

, south of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. One theory of why it is stolen so often is because the various theft attempts have defined its market value, making it easier to sell as stolen property. In early April 2021, a person was arrested in the town of

Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. The town of Baarn ...

, as a suspect in the theft of ''Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer'' and also of the theft of '' The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen'' by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

which had been stolen from the

Singer Laren Singer Laren is a museum and concert hall located in the center of Laren, the Netherlands. The museum is devoted to presenting and preserving the collection of the American artist William Henry Singer (1868–1943) and his wife Anna (1878–196 ...

museum in Laren in March 2020. Neither painting was recovered at that time. Art detective Arthur Brand told a reporter that the person in custody probably did not know the location of the works because "stolen artwork was often moved around quickly by criminal gangs". A

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

item stated the value of the Frans Halls painting as "some €15m (£13m; $17.5m)" but provided no source for that information. An article published by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' stated that the work "would be expected to fetch £13.4m at auction". On 24 September, the man was convicted of the thefts and sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

References

* ''Frans Hals, a

catalogue raisonné A ''catalogue raisonné'' (or critical catalogue) is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist either in a particular medium or all media. The works are described in such a way that they may be reliably identified ...

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 {{ACArt Dutch culture Paintings by Frans Hals 1626 paintings

See also

References