National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Portrait of an Elderly Lady
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

The strength and vitality of the people who helped establish the new Dutch Republic are nowhere better captured than in paintings by Frans Hals. Hals was the preeminent portrait painter in Haarlem, the most important Dutch city in the early part of the seventeenth century. This mercantile, intellectual, and artistic center attracted many immigrants from Flanders, including Hals' parents.

Although the name of this sitter is not known, Hals inscribed her age, sixty, and the date of the painting, 1633, in the background on the left. The prayer book she holds in her right hand and her conservative black costume with its white ruff clearly indicate her pious nature, yet Hals tells us far more about her through her face and hands than through her costume and book. With firm yet broad strokes of his brush he conveys her lively, robust personality. Her self-confidence is felt in the twinkle of her eyes, in the firm grasp of her hand on the arm of the chair, and by the strong silhouette of her form against the gray background.

Inscription

center left: AETAT SVAE 60 / ANo 1633

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Jurriaans;[1] (his sale, Van de Schley, Roos, and De Vries, Amsterdam, 28 August 1817, no. 20); Cornelius Sebille Roos [1754-1820], Amsterdam. Charlotte-Camille, Comtesse Boucher de la Rupelle [née de Tascher, d. 1911], Paris; sold by 1905 to (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris); James Simon [1851-1932], Berlin, by 1906; (Abraham Preyer, The Hague);[2] purchased 12 June 1919 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[3] held jointly with (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London), June to November 1919);[4] (Duveen Brothers, Inc.); sold June 1920 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] The name is also inscribed on copies of the 1817 sale catalogue as “Jurjans.” See the description of Sale Catalogue N-298 in The Getty Provenance Index Databases, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles.

[2] From The Hague on 4 May 1919, Preyer cabled fellow dealers Scott and Fowles in New York that he had purchased the painting; see Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 229, box 374, folder 7.

[3] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 103, box 248, folder 22. Oddly, the Duveen prospectus, in NGA curatorial files, says the painting was acquired by Duveen in 1927, which is clearly an error.

[4] The painting was Agnew’s stock number J1821. This information comes from the Agnew stock books, and is recorded in the Public Collections portion of the Getty Provenance Index® Databases. J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles.

Exhibition History

1905
Catalogue of 100 Paintings by Old Masters, Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, 1905, no. 13.
1906
Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst, Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin, 1906, no. 49.
1939
Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 179.
1989
Frans Hals, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, 1989-1990, no. 45, color repro.as Portrait of a Seated Woman.

Bibliography

1907
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 3(1910):108, no. 371.
1909
Moes, Ernst Wilhelm. Frans Hals: sa vie et son oeuvre. Trans. by J. de Bosschere. Brussels, 1909: 108, no. 186.
1914
Bode, Wilhelm von, and Moritz Julius Binder. Frans Hals: sein Leben und seine Werke. 2 vols. Berlin, 1914: 1:40, no. 138, pl. 79 (also English ed., Frans Hals: His Life and Work, Berlin, 1914: 1:43, no. 138, pl. 79).
1914
Hundred Masterpieces of the Sedelmeyer Gallery. Paris, 1914: 30, no.13, repro.
1921
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals, des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben, 28. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921: 313, 103, 109, repro. (also 1923 rev. ed., Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig, 313, 109, repro.).
1930
Dülberg, Franz. Frans Hals: ein Leben und ein Werk. Stuttgart, 1930: 114.
1936
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals Paintings in America. Westport, Connecticut, 1936: no. 41, repro.
1941
Duveen 1941, fig. 191.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 94.
1941
Trivas, Numa S. The Paintings of Frans Hals. London and New York, 1941: 39, no. 41, pl. 59.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 25.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 74, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 101
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 311, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 65.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 57, repro.
1970
Slive 1970-1974, 1(1970):115; 2(1970):pls. 135, 138; 3(1974):42, 50, no. 82.
1972
Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: Entwicklung, Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatolog. Berlin, 1972: 90, 202, no. 69, 89, repro.
1974
Montagni, E. C. L'opera completa di Frans Hals. Milan, 1974: 97, no. 83, 96, repro., pl. 31 (also 1976 French ed., Tout l'oeuvre peint de Frans Hals, Paris).
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 168, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 268, no. 350, repro.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 68, pl. 53, color repro.
1981
Baard, H. P. Frans Hals. New York, 1981: 57, fig. 60.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 268, no. 344, color repro.
1984
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984: 10, repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 196, repro.
1986
Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids and Kampen, 1986: 308.
1989
Slive, Seymour, et. al. Frans Hals. Exh cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem. London, 1989: 262-263, no. 45, color repro.
1990
Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: The Complete Work. Translated by Jürgen Riehle from Stuttgart 1999. New York, 1990: color repro. 168, 183, 279, no. 63, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 67.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 123, repro.
1995
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 69-72, color repro. 71.
2001
Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 50-51, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 186-187, no. 146, color repro.
2012
Atkins, Christopher D.M. The Signature Style of Frans Hals: Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity. Amsterdam, 2012: 226.

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