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 lost) 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.