Boy Drinking (1582–83): Art, History and Details

Boy Drinking (1582–83) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Annibale Carracci (Italian, c. 1560–1609).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Together with his brother Agostino and cousin Lodovico, Annibale Carracci introduced artistic reforms in Italy based on close observation of the natural world. Annibale’s innovative and highly influential style steered a path between the smooth artificiality of Mannerism––in which style and technique took precedence over fidelity to nature––and the heightened drama of paintings by Caravaggio. In this remarkable early work, the coarse surface of the canvas, the inelegant subject matter, and the striking distortion of forms from light passing through glass all speak to his naturalistic approach.

Object facts

• Title: Boy Drinking
• Date: 1582–83
• Creator attribution: Annibale Carracci (Italian, c. 1560–1609)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 79 x 67 x 5.5 cm (31 1/8 x 26 3/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 55.8 x 43.7 cm (21 15/16 x 17 3/16 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1994.4

A detail from the museum

In this painting, the reflective quality of the jug enhances its naturalism: notice how it throws light onto the boy's shirt.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Christie, Manson & Woods. Catalogue of a Valuable Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures: The Property of the Rt. Hon. Lord Bateman, Formerly at Kelmarsh Hall, Northhamtonshire. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1896. .
• Knight Frank & Rutley, and John Arthur Haigh Wood. Contents of Hengrave Hall. 1952.
• Posner, Donald. Annibale Carracci; A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting Around 1590. London: Phaidon, 1971.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.