page_title: The Last Drop (Leyster)
section_title: Misattribution
hierarchical_section_title: The Last Drop (Leyster) / Background / Misattribution
context_page_description: The Last Drop is a c. 1639 oil painting by Judith Leyster in the John G. Johnson collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was considered a work of art by Frans Hals until 1903, when it was noticed that it is signed 'JL*' on the tankard.
context_section_description: Leyster did not date The Last Drop and Merry Trio; therefore Juliane Harms dated her work within the years of 1631 to 1633. These were the dates of Leyster's other candlelit paintings, for example, The Proposition. In 1642 it was recorded that an art dealer named Emanuel Burck sold art pieces signed with the name "Judith Molenaer" and "Judith Leyster". Molenaer was her married name from her husband Jan Miense Molenaer. It is possible that Emanuel Burck personally knew Leyster and used her married name instead of her maiden name on purpose. Another name that she went by on legal documents was "Juffrow Molenaer". When her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer, died, the inventory of paintings in their home were not listed by the name of Judith Leyster but instead by the name of: "Juffrow Molenaer", 'His wife", "Wife of the deceased", and "Judith Molenaer". In 1903 it was documented that the British dealer and auction house Sir George Donaldson, exhibited The Last Drop and  Leyster's Merry Trio together. The Last Drop and the Merry Trio were then exhibited together in the 1904 Guildhall exhibition, Painters of the Dutch School, where they were listed under both Judith Leyster and Frans Hals. The Last Drop and Merry Trio may be pendants as they were then reported to have the same measurements. At this time, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot recognized Leyster's signature on the Carousing Couple, which had previously been credited to Frans Hals. After recognizing Leyster's signature on the Carousing Couple, Groot then identified six more of Judith Leyster's paintings. The Guildhall exhibit presented a biography for Frans Hals, but not for Judith Leyster. The organizers of the exhibit did not want to surrender Frans Hals's label. It is often mistaken that Leyster was a pupil of Frans Hals, although there is no sufficient proof that this was the case. There is a slight resemblance between Leyster's work and Frans Hals's artistic style, but this is not enough to prove that she was his student.  In 1904, organizers of that same Guildhall exhibition also attributed the painting Young Women at Her Toilet to the name of Leyster, but wrote about Leyster's art in a negative way.
caption: Judith Leyster - Carousing Couple - WGA12954
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