Drinking Man was originally a slouched and sodden member of the Drink and the Devil tableau in Dilmus Hall’s Athens, Georgia, yard. In Hall’s yard the drinking man and his supine accomplice (now in a private collection) were threatened by a fearsome devil (also part of the High’s collection), whom Hall said would “whop” the Drinking Man if he stopped his tippling. Hall began his mixed-media group in the 1950s, using brick, metal, and wood, covered with concrete and painted with enamel.