Public domain
The Drunken Couple
From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
A man and woman are so drunk that they are unaware they are being robbed. Their foolishness is underscored by the print on the partition. It depicts an owl, considered a stupid creature in the 17th century. After all, it could not see by day, not even with a candle or eyeglasses. The drunken couple is thus just as blind as the owl, a message that survives in the English idiom ‘blind as a bat’.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own descriptionCredit lineHet dronken paar. c. 1655 - c. 1665. Jan Havicksz. Steen. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain.