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Refreshing the Thirsty
Also titled De dorstigen laven
Michael Sweerts (Brussels, 1618–1664)
c. 1646 - c. 1649
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 72 cm x width 97.5 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Purchased with the support of the Commissie voor Fotoverkoop
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
Sweerts painted his series of the ‘Seven Works of Mercy’ on different kinds of linen. For this painting, he used rather coarse canvas; accordingly, his brushstrokes are broader. Visible in the background of this scene is the church of Santissima Trinità dei Monti in Rome, an allusion to the necessity – then as now – of helping the needy and offering refreshment to the thirsty.
