The Bitter Potion

ca. 1636 - 1638

Adriaen Brouwer captures the ultimate "yuck" face in this hilarious Baroque masterpiece. A disheveled man with a dark cap clutches a tiny bottle and a bowl, his face contorted in sheer agony after swallowing a foul-tasting medicine. Brouwer was famous for painting the gritty, unglamorous side of life—drunken tavern brawls, smokers, and sick peasants—and he did it with incredible empathy and humor. You can almost smell the bitter brew and feel the man's desperate urge to spit it out!

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