In the series of Jakopič’s early heads,An Alcoholic marks the turning point of his advance from the realist studio practice to addressing the subject with purely painterly means. Through emancipation of colour and emphatic brushstroke the painter unleashed the expressive potential of his model and exposed the pitiful condition of human nature. At its first public showing in 1902 the painting carried the title The Lost Soul and provoked mocking reception in the press. The painter’s compassionate treatment of the addict was obviously at odds with public perception of this social ill. Jakopič changed its title to a simple chemical formula for ethanol, which pinpoints the contextual reference. Alcoholism was a paramount theme in public polemics in the press on the grim statistics of alcoholism after the agrarian crisis of the 1890s. Moreover, it was politicized by the licence granted to rectories to sell spirits, which the liberals exploited in order to castigate the conservatives.