No figure in Dutch painting is more famously gluttonous than the character of Peeckelhaeringh, whose name means "pickled herring" and who became a stock comic type on the 17th-century stage. When Frans Hals painted his Peeckelhaeringh around 1620, the image was so popular that at least a dozen versions by Hals and his followers soon appeared in taverns and homes across Haarlem. The painting’s fame even reached the English diarist John Evelyn, who described in 1641 "a merry Dutchman, with a red nose and a brimming mug." This work stands as one of the earliest and most vivid examples of a comic portrait in Dutch art. At the center sits Peeckelhaeringh himself, caught mid-laugh, his mouth open in a raucous guffaw, a tankard raised in one hand and the other gesturing as if to toast the viewer.

His flushed cheeks and watery eyes suggest both the effects of drink and the hearty spirit of the tavern. The crisp white collar and the glinting pewter mug are painted with Hals’s famously loose, energetic brushwork, which seems to vibrate with the sitter’s own mirth. Unlike the moralizing tone of Jan Steen’s later tavern scenes, Hals’s Peeckelhaeringh is more affectionate than admonishing—he is a figure of fun, not a warning. The original patron of this painting is unknown, but works like Peeckelhaeringh were often purchased by prosperous burghers for their parlors, as tokens of humor and conviviality.

Over the centuries, the painting has been attributed to Hals with little dispute, its lively style and characterful execution matching his hand unmistakably. Today, the best-known version hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, where it continues to draw visitors with its infectious sense of life. For Frans Hals, this work marks a turning point toward the genre portraits that would become his signature, capturing not just a face, but an entire spirit.