The facial expression on the young woman is particularly interesting: her cheeks flushed, she sends her half-smile towards her companion, looking at him fondly, or perhaps rather lasciviously. Like the Jolly Toper, Leyster depicts a moment of fun, and fills the picture with a lively energy. His companion, nestled just behind him, holds an open beer jug and a glass of beer almost to her lips. The man, wearing a wide black hat and large white ruff, leans back into his chair, his legs casually crossed, whilst in his hands he holds a violin aloft, as if about to play. This painting, which is also known as The Jolly Companions, depicts a couple as they drink and play music together.

Oil on canvas - Frans Hals Museum, Netherlands The intricate detail of the sitter's face conveys a sense of the individuality and personality that recognizes his enjoyment of his evening (or afternoon) and predicts that he has not had his last drink. The idea of vice is contrasted to cheerful demeanour of the subject of the painting. In adapting this common theme, Leyster clearly shows her knowledge of contemporaneous painterly trends and the desire to give them her own spin. Many paintings of this period included subtle moralizing messages on the transience of life and its indulgences. The subject's clear enjoyment of smoking and drinking might have suggested both the pleasures of life and the dangers of excess.

As art historian Cynthia Kortenhorst-Von Bogendorf Rupprath tells us, the subject of this painting was popularized by the group of artists known as the Utrecht Carravaggisiti before becoming a subject common among Haarlem painters from the 1620s. On the table in front of him is a small pipe and some wrapped tobacco. He wears a greenish-blue long tunic, and the sloping angle of his beret suggests it may be in danger of falling off at any moment. Here we see a good natured, ruddy-cheeked man, lifting up his beer jug as if to show us that his drink has just run out. This painting is one of two earliest paintings attributed to Leyster.

Leyster's 17th-century success and subsequent erasure from history provides one important example of the many women who have been omitted from the artistic canon.

Forgotten by art history, Judith Leyster's legacy was recovered by feminist art historians who, beginning in the 1970s, began to question the absence of women from the history of art.

Leyster's paintings, however, tend to remain ambiguous and subtle, encouraging the viewers to draw their own conclusions.

This was common among Dutch Baroque painters, who sought alternatives to traditional religious subjects but still desired some larger symbolic meaning in their work. Leyster's jovial subjects appear to enjoy life, yet she also imbued these works with potential moralizing interpretations.Her relatable subjects and informal, but technically precise, style reveal an artist who was connected to international trends of Baroque painting, but added to them her independent vision and style. Painting lively scenes of musicians and drinkers, Leyster specialized in capturing the leisures and entertainments of the Dutch Republic during the 17 th century.

Monogram moments