There were two quite distinct schools of portraiture in 17th-century Haarlem: the neat (represented, for example, byVerspronck); and a looser, morepainterly style at which Frans Hals excelled. Some of Hals's portrait work is characterised by a subdued palette, reflecting the politely serious tones of his fashionable clients' wardrobe. In contrast, the personalities he paints are full of life, typically with a friendly glint in the eye or the glimmer of a smile on the lips.
Hals was born in 1582 or 1583 inAntwerp, then in theSpanish Netherlands, as the son of cloth merchant Franchois Fransz Hals van Mechelen (c. 1542–1610) and his second wife Adriaentje van Geertenryck.[10] Like many, Hals's parents fled during[11] theFall of Antwerp (1584–1585) from the south to Haarlem in the newDutch Republic in the north, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Hals studied underFlemish émigréKarel van Mander,[10][12] whoseMannerist influence, however, is barely noticeable in Hals's work.
In 1610, Hals became a member of theHaarlem Guild of Saint Luke, and he started to earn money as an art restorer for the town council. He worked on their large art collection, which Karel van Mander had described in hisSchilderboeck ("Painter's Book") published in Haarlem in 1604. The most notable works were those ofGeertgen tot Sint Jans,Jan van Scorel, andJan Mostaert that hung in theSt John's Church in Haarlem. The restoration work was paid for by the council. The council had confiscated all Catholic religious art in theHaarlemse Noon, although it did not formally possess the entire collection until 1625, when the city fathers had decided which were suitable for the town hall. The remaining art, which was considered too Roman Catholic, was sold toCornelis Claesz van Wieringen, a fellow guild member, on condition that he remove it from Haarlem. It was in this cultural context that Hals began his career in portraiture, since the market had disappeared for religious themes.
Frans Hals married his first wife Anneke Harmensdochter around 1610. Frans was of Catholic birth, however, so their marriage was recorded in the city hall and not in church.[13] Unfortunately, the exact date is unknown because the older marriage records of the Haarlem city hall before 1688 have not been preserved.[13] Anneke was born 2 January 1590 as the daughter of bleacher Harmen Dircksz and Pietertje Claesdr Ghijblant, and her maternal grandfather, linen producer Claes Ghijblant ofSpaarne 42, bequeathed the couple the grave in theGrote Kerk church where both are buried, though Frans took over 40 years to join his first wife there.[13] Anneke died in 1615, shortly after the birth of their third child and, of the three,Harmen survived infancy and one had died before Hals's second marriage.[13]
As biographerSeymour Slive has pointed out, older stories of Hals abusing his first wife were confused with another Haarlem resident of the same name. Indeed, at the time of these charges, the artist had no wife to mistreat, as Anneke had died in May 1615.[14] Similarly, historical accounts of Hals's propensity for drink were largely based on embellished anecdotes of his early biographers likeArnold Houbraken; there is no direct evidence that Hals did drink heavily. After his first wife died, Hals took on the young daughter of a fishmonger to look after his children and, in 1617, he married Lysbeth Reyniers. They married inSpaarndam, a small village outside thebanns of Haarlem, because she was already eight months pregnant. Hals was a devoted father, and they went on to have eight children.[15]
Contemporaries such asRembrandt moved their households according to the caprices of their patrons, but Hals remained in Haarlem and insisted that his customers come to him. According to the Haarlem archives, aschutterstuk that Hals started in Amsterdam was finished byPieter Codde because Hals refused to paint in Amsterdam, insisting that the militiamen come to Haarlem to sit for their portraits. For this reason, we can be sure that all sitters were either from Haarlem or were visiting Haarlem when they had their portraits made.
Hals's work was in demand through much of his life, but he lived so long that he eventually went out of style as a painter and experienced financial difficulties. In addition to his painting, he worked as arestorer, art dealer, and art tax expert for the city councilors. His creditors took him to court several times, and he sold his belongings to settle his debt with a baker in 1652. The inventory of the property seized mentions only threemattresses and bolsters, an armoire, a table, and five pictures[16] (these were by himself, his sons, van Mander, andMaarten van Heemskerck).[17] Left destitute, he was given anannuity of 200 florins in 1664 by the municipality.[16]
The Dutch nation fought for independence during theEighty Years' War,[16] and Hals was a member of the localschutterij, a militaryguild. He included a self-portrait in his1639 painting of the St Joris company, according to its 19th-century painting frame. (It has not been possible to confirm this.) It was not common for ordinary members to be painted, as that privilege was reserved for the officers. Hals painted the company three times. He was also a member of a localchamber of rhetoric, and in 1644 he became chairman of the Guild of St Luke.
Frans Hals died in Haarlem in 1666 and was buried in theGrote Kerk church.[18] He had been receiving a city pension, which was highly unusual and a sign of the esteem with which he was regarded. After his death, his widow applied for aid and was admitted to the local almshouse, where she later died.
Hals is best known for his portraits, mainly of wealthy citizens such asPieter van den Broecke andIsaac Massa, whom he painted three times. He also painted large group portraits forlocal civic guards and for the regents of local hospitals. He was aDutch Golden Age painter who practiced an intimaterealism with a radically free approach. His pictures illustrate the various strata of society: banquets or meetings of officers, guildsmen,[16] local councilmen from mayors to clerks, itinerant players and singers, gentlemen, fishwives, and tavern heroes. In his group portraits, such asThe Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1627, Hals captures each character in a different manner. The faces are not idealized and are clearly distinguishable, with their personalities revealed in a variety of poses and facial expressions.
Hals was fond of daylight and silvery sheen, while Rembrandt used golden glow effects based upon artificial contrasts of low light in immeasurable gloom. Hals seized a moment in the life of his subjects with rare intuition. What nature displayed in that moment he reproduced thoroughly in a delicate scale of color and with mastery over every form of expression. He became so clever that exact tone, light and shade, and modeling were obtained with a few marked and fluid strokes of the brush.[16] He became a popular portrait painter and painted the wealthy of Haarlem on special occasions. He won many commissions for wedding portraits (the husband is traditionally situated on the left, and the wife situated on the right). His double portrait of the newly married Olycans hang side by side in theMauritshuis, but many of his wedding portrait pairs have since been split up and are rarely seen together.
Isabella Coymans, wife of Stephan Geraedts, 1652, Private Collection.
The only record of his work in the first decade of his independent activity is an engraving byJan van de Velde copied from the lost portrait ofThe Minister Johannes Bogardus. Early works by Hals show him as a careful draughtsman capable of great finish yet spirited, such asTwo singing boys with a lute and a music book andBanquet of the Officers of the St George Militia (1616). The flesh that he painted is pastose and burnished, less clear than it subsequently became. Later, he became more effective, displayed more freedom of hand and a greater command of effect.[16]
His style changed throughout his life. Paintings of vivid color were gradually replaced by pieces where mostly black came to dominate. This was probably due to the sober dress of his Protestant sitters, more than any personal preference. One simple way to observe this change is to look at all of the portraits that he painted through the years with his trademark pose leaning over the back of a chair:
Willem van Heythuysen by Frans Hals (1634, one of two portraits of Van Heythuysen attributed to Hals).
Later in his life, his brush strokes became looser, fine detail becoming less important than the overall impression.[22] His earlier pieces radiated gaiety and liveliness, while his later portraits emphasized the stature and dignity of the people portrayed. This austerity is displayed inRegents of the St Elizabeth Hospital in 1641 and,[23] two decades later,The Regents andRegentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse (c. 1664), which are masterpieces of color, though in substance all but monochromes.[24][25] His restricted palette is particularly noticeable in his flesh tints, which became greyer from year to year, until finally the shadows were painted in almost absolute black, as in theTymane Oosdorp.[16]
This tendency coincides with the period when Hals gained fewer commissions from the wealthy, and some historians have suggested that a reason for his predilection for black and white pigment was the low price of these colors as compared with the costly lakes and carmines.[16] Both conclusions are probably correct, however, because Hals did not travel to his sitters, unlike his contemporaries, but let them come to him. This was good for business because he was exceptionally quick and efficient in his own well-fitted studio, but it was bad for business when Haarlem fell on hard times.
Portrait of a Gentleman, circa 1630; private collection
As a portrait painter, Hals had scarcely the psychological insight of aRembrandt orVelázquez, though in a few works, like theAdmiral de Ruyter, theJacob Olycan, and theAlbert van der Meer paintings, he reveals a searching analysis of character which has little in common with the instantaneous expression of his character portraits. In these, he generally sets upon the canvas the fleeting aspect of the various stages of merriment, from the subtle, half ironic smile that quivers round the lips of the curiously misnamedLaughing Cavalier to the grin of theMalle Babbe.[26][27] To this group of pictures belong theLute Player, theGypsy Girl and theLaughing Fisherboy, whilst theMarriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen and the somewhat confused group of theBeresteyn Family at the Louvre show a similar tendency. Far less scattered in arrangement than this Beresteyn group, and in every respect one of the most masterly of Hals's achievements is the group calledThe Painter and his Family, which was almost unknown until it appeared at the winter exhibition at theRoyal Academy in 1906.[16]
According to theFrans Hals catalogue raisonné, 1974, 222 known paintings can be ascribed to Hals. This list was compiled bySeymour Slive in 1970−1974 who also wrote an exhibition catalogue in 1989 and produced an update to his catalogue raisonné work in 2014. In 1989, another authority on Hals,Claus Grimm,[28] disagreed with Slive and published a shorterœuvre of 145 paintings in hisFrans Hals. Das Gesamtwerk.
It is not known whether Hals ever painted landscapes, still lifes or narrative pieces, but it is unlikely. His debut for Haarlem society in 1616 with his large group portrait for the St George militia shows all three disciplines, but if that painting was his signboard for future commissions, it seems he was subsequently only hired for portraits. Many artists in the 17th century in Holland opted to specialise, and Hals also appears to have been a pure portrait specialist.
Hals was a master of a technique that utilized something previously seen as a flaw in painting, the visible brushstroke. The soft curling lines of Hals's brush are always clear upon the surface: "materially just lying there, flat, while conjuring substance and space in the eye."[29]In this way his style was similar to Édouard Manet; in fact, Hals was described by author Raymond Cogniat as "the Manet of his day."[30] Lively and exciting, the technique can appear "ostensibly slapdash"[29] – people often think that Hals 'threw' his works 'in one toss' (aus einem Guss) onto thecanvas. This impression is not correct.[31] Hals did occasionally paint withoutunderdrawings orunderpainting (alla prima), but most of the works were created in successive layers, as was customary at that time. Sometimes a drawing was made with chalk or paint on top of a grey or pink undercoat, and was then more or less filled in, in stages. It does seem that Hals usually applied his underpainting very loosely: he was a virtuoso from the beginning. This applies, of course, particularly to his genre works and his somewhat later, mature works. Hals displayed tremendous daring, great courage and virtuosity, and had a great capacity to pull back his hands from the canvas, or panel, at the moment of the most telling statement. He didn't 'paint them to death', as many of his contemporaries did, in their great accuracy and diligence whether requested by their clients or not.
In the 17th century his first biographer, Schrevelius wrote: "An unusual manner of painting, all his own, surpassing almost everyone," on Hals's painting methods. For that matter, schematic painting was not Hals's own idea (the approach already existed in 16th century Italy), and Hals was probably inspired by Flemish contemporaries,Rubens andVan Dyck, in his painting method. Haarlem residentTheodorus Schrevelius was struck by the vitality of Hals's portraits which reflected 'such power and life' that the painter 'seems to challenge nature with his brush'.
Though most of his sons became portrait painters, some of them took up still-life painting or architectural studies and landscapes. Still lifes formerly attributed to his son Frans II have since been re-attributed to other painters, however.[10][33] Hals painted a young woman reaching into a basket in a still life market scene byClaes van Heussen.[34]
Other contemporary painters who took inspiration from Hals were,[35] with the main cities they were based in:
Hals had a large workshop in Haarlem and many students, though 19th century biographers questioned some of his pupils, since their painting styles were so dissimilar to Hals. In hisDe Groote Schouburgh (1718–21),Arnold Houbraken mentionsPhilips Wouwerman,Adriaen Brouwer,Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten,Adriaen van Ostade andDirck van Delen as students.Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne was also a student, according to his diary with notes left by his son Laurens Vincentsz van der Vinne.[36] Roestraten was not only a student (the Haarlem archives contain a notarised document, which supports this fact), but he also became a son-in-law of Hals when he married his daughter Adriaentje. The Haarlem portrait painter,Johannes Verspronck, one of about 10 competing portraitists in Haarlem at the time, possibly studied for some time with Hals.
In terms of style, the closest to Hals's work is the handful of paintings that are ascribed toJudith Leyster, which she often signed. She also 'qualifies' as a possible student, as does her husband, the painterJan Miense Molenaer.
ThePost-Impressionist artistVincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: 'What a joy it is to see a Frans Hals, how different it is from the paintings – so many of them – where everything is carefully smoothed out in the same manner.' Hals chose not to give a smooth finish to his painting, as most of his contemporaries did, but mimicked the vitality of his subject by using smears, lines, spots, large patches of color and hardly any details.
Malle Babbe,c. 1630. Oil on canvas, 75 cm by 64 cm. Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
The1911Encyclopædia Britannica has an article on Frans Hals byPaul George Konody, who observes: Hals's reputation waned after his death and for two centuries he was held in such poor esteem that some of his paintings, which are now among the proudest possessions of public galleries, were sold at auction for a few pounds or even shillings. The portrait ofJohannes Acronius realized five shillings at theEnschede sale in 1786. ThePortrait of Willem van Heythuysen at theAlte Pinakothek sold in 1800 for £4: 5s[16] (£4.25 in decimal notation).
Nevertheless, Hals's art did not go altogether unappreciated in the time between his death in 1666 and the 1860s. In hisGroote Schouburgh (1718–1721),Arnold Houbraken recorded Hals's life and praised his style, adding that the figures in one of the large group portraits:... zoo kragtig en natuurlyk geschildert zyn, dat zy de aanschouwers schynen te willen aanspreken ("... are painted so powerfully and naturally, they seem to want to talk to us").[38] Dutch artists known to have admired Hals enough to make copies of his paintings includeCornelis van Noorde (1731–1795) andWybrand Hendricks (1744–1831). EmpressCatherine the Great (reigned 1762–1796) acquired ten Hals works for her collection.Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) visited the Alte Pinakothek to copy Hals's work, and Hals's influence is apparent in Fragonard'sportraits de fantaisie.Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) made study sketches after Hals. At theRoyal Academy in London,Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) lectured on Hals in 1774, praising his handling of faces and the consequent remarkable individuality of his portraits. Reynolds was less enthusiastic about Hals's characteristic loose finish, which he thought betrayed impatience. Subsequently, in 1781 Reynolds visited the Hals collection then atHaarlem Town Hall (now at theFrans Hals Museum) and soon after bought two Hals works. Reynolds's biographerJames Northcote (1736–1831), who was a fellow portraitist, remarked that Hals could have caught a bird in flight, grasping it, as it were, from life – something he said Titian would not have been capable of.[39]
Starting at the middle of the 1860s his prestige rose again thanks to the efforts of criticThéophile Thoré-Bürger.[40][41] With his rehabilitation in public esteem came the enormous rise in value, and, at theSecretan sale in 1889, the portrait ofPieter van den Broecke was bid up to 4,420 francs, while in 1908 theNational Gallery paid £25,000 for thelarge family group from the collection of Lord Talbot de Malahide.[16]
Hals's work remains admired, particularly with young painters who can find many lessons about practical technique from his unconcealed brushstrokes.[29] Hals's works have found their way to countless cities all over the world and into museum collections. From the late 19th century, they were collected everywhere—from Antwerp to Toronto, and from London to New York. Many of his paintings were then sold to American collectors.
Several of his most important works are owned by the town council of Haarlem. They are now at theFrans Hals Museum in the Groot Heiligland, Haarlem.[42] Before 1913 they hung in the Town Hall, whereImpressionists went to see them.
^Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, and P. Biesboer (1989).Frans Hals. Munich: Prestel. p. 379.
^abcdAnneke HarmensdrArchived 14 October 2017 at theWayback Machine inNieuwe gegevens betreffende Anneke Harmansdr., de eerste echtegonte van Frans Hals, by M. Thierry de Bye Dolleman working from research by C.A. de Goederen-van Hees, pp. 249-257, Haerlem: jaarboek 1973, ISSN 0927-0728, on the website of the North Holland Archives
^Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, andPieter Biesboer (1989).Frans Hals. Munich: Prestel. p. 376.
^Konody, Paul George (1911)."Hals, Frans" . InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 865–867, see page 867, last para.Quite in another form, and with much of the freedom of the elder Hals, Dirk Hals, his brother (born at Haarlem, died 1656), is a painter of festivals and ball-rooms...
^Konody, Paul George (1911)."Hals, Frans" . InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 865–867, see page 867, last but one para.Of the master's numerous family none has left a name except Frans Hals the Younger, born about 1622, who died in 1669. His pictures represent cottages and poultry...
^Erftenmeijer, Antoon (2014).Het fenomeen Frans Hals. Haarlem: Frans Hals Museum. pp. 148–150.ISBN97-894-6208-167-3. There is also an English edition: ISBN 978-9462081680, titledFrans Hals: A Phenomenon.
^Johnson, Paul.Art: A New History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, p. 369
^Middelkoop, Norbert E. (2024), Middelkoop, Norbert E.; Ekkart, Rudi E.O. (eds.),"Frans Hals: A Survey of Current Research",Frans Hals, Iconography – Technique – Reputation, Amsterdam University Press, pp. 9–12,ISBN978-90-485-6606-8, retrieved1 January 2025
^"Hals".Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA.Archived from the original on 27 March 2017. Retrieved1 September 2015.
Claus Grimm published hisFrans Hals. Das Gesamtwerk in 1989 (Stuttgart/Zürich; also translated into Dutch and English).
N. Middelkoop and A. van Grevenstein, Frans Hals.Leven, werk, restauratie (Life, work and restorations) (Haarlem Amsterdam 1988). This work gives an account of restorations of the riflemen's pieces, but it also gives a picture of Hals's life and work.
Antoon Erftemeijer (2004):Frans Hals in het Frans Hals Museum, Amsterdam/Gent (in Dutch, English and French), in which various chapters are devoted to Hals's life, his predecessors, portrait painting in the Golden Age, Hals's painting technique and other subjects. Many pictures with close-ups in this book show Hals's works in great detail.
Christopher D. M. Atkins (2003):"Frans Hals's Virtuoso Brushwork",Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, pp. 281–309). Parts of this article are excerpts ofThe Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, July 2005 by Antoon Erftemeijer, Frans Hals Museum curator.
Christopher D. M. Atkins (2012):The Signature Style of Frans Hals: Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity, Amsterdam University Press.
Henry R. Lew (2018):Imaging the World, Hybrid Publishers, Melbourne, Australia Chapter 9: Frans Hals, pages 108–126.
Steven Nadler (2022):The Portraitist: Frans Hals and His World, The University of Chicago Press.
Lelia Packer and Ashok Roy (2022):Frans Hals: The Male Portrait, TheWallace Collection.
![Joseph Coymans (1591–1660), the husband of Dorothea Berck, 1644, Wadsworth Atheneum.[19]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aFrans_Hals_1644_Portrait_of_Joseph_Coymans.jpg)
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