Frans Hals

Dutch, c. 1582/1583 - 1666

Explore Selected Works

See all 21 works of art
Shown from the thighs up, a man with pale, peachy skin, wearing a black suit, cape, and hat, stands with one hand on his hip against an elephant-gray background in this vertical portrait painting. The portrait is loosely painted in some areas, especially in the clothing and background, though the face is more detailed. His body is angled slightly to our right so one shoulder juts toward us, to our left, and he turns his face to look at us brown eyes. One bushy brow is slightly arched. He has a long, bumped nose, soft jowls along his jawline, and perhaps a mole almost lost in shadow on his left cheek, to our right. His wide, pale peach lips are closed and framed by a thin, brushy mustache and a patch of hair under his lower lip. His shoulder-length, wavy, light brown hair curls around his face, and he wears a tall, black hat with a wide brim turned over his right ear, to our left. A hip-length black cloak drapes over a long-sleeved black jacket. A wide, flat, white collar lies across his shoulders and is tied with fluffy tassels that hang on his chest. Streaks of slate-gray suggest horizontal bands next to buttons down the front of his jacket and along the forearms, above white cuffs. He stands with his right arm, to our left, hanging by his side, and he holds the fabric of his cloak in a loose fist. The back of his other hand rests against his left hip, to our right, and a few streaks of parchment brown suggest a glove in that hand. The background is painted with thin, blended areas of gray and peanut brown.
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Gentleman, 1650/1652, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.29

Portrait of a Gentleman

Frans Hals · 1650/1652 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.29

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man holds one hand to his chest as he looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left almost in profile, and he turns his head to gaze out from the corners of his dark brown eyes. He has thick, dark brows, fleshy cheeks, and his pink lips are parted. He has a moustache and small patch of hair on under his lower lip. He has chin-length, straight brown hair and wears a high-crowned, brimmed black hat pushed slightly back on his forehead. A flat white collar lies across his shoulders over a voluminous black coat. His right palm, farther from us, rests against his chest, and the other hand is tucked below, mostly hidden by the coat. The wrist we see has a wide white cuff. The portrait is loosely painted, especially in the black-on-black pattern of the man’s clothing and the earth-brown background. The artist signed the painting with his initials in a conjoined monogram near the man’s far elbow, along the left edge of the canvas: “FH.”
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Man, 1648/1650, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.28

Portrait of a Man

Frans Hals · 1648/1650 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.28

Shown from the chest up, a young man with a plump, pale-skinned face hooks one elbow over the back of a wooden chair and looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body faces our right as he turns his head over his right shoulder, closer to us, to gaze out with brown eyes under lifted brows. His nose ends with a round bump, and his round cheeks are flushed. He has a wispy mustache over full pink lips, which are parted. He wears a tall-crowned, brimmed black hat over a cloud of wavy, shoulder-length black hair. A lace-edged white collar spreads over an ink-black, satin coat. His right elbow is planted across the back of the chair, which has carved finials to either side. That hand is closed in a fist, which may hold something. The man’s hat casts a shadow on the right side of the taupe-gray wall behind him, where the artist has signed the painting with two monograms of his initials, “HF.” The brushwork is loose throughout, especially so in the man’s clothing.
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Young Man, 1646/1648, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.71

Portrait of a Young Man

Frans Hals · 1646/1648 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.71

Shown from about the hips up, a man with peachy skin, wearing an ink-black hat and coat with a bright white collar, looks out at us against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. He stands with his body angled to our right and his face turned to look at us with dark gray eyes. His slim face is framed in long, brown curls under his tall, brimmed hat, which is cocked a little to our right, away from us. He has a straight, prominent nose, lightly flushed cheeks, and a wispy, light brown mustache above a small, pointed goatee under his lower lip. His neck is encased in a broad, starched, white linen collar, its wings lying along his collarbones. His velvety black coat has a row of tightly spaced buttons down the front. A cummerbund or sash wraps around his waist and hips. He rests his right hand, on our left, against his hip near his lower back, palm facing out. He wears a light, dove-gray glove on his opposite hand, and holds a second glove in that hand. The background is earth brown. The portrait is painted loosely, with broader brushstrokes in some areas, such as the hand at his hip and in the folds of the black garments.
Frans Hals, Adriaen van Ostade, 1646/1648, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.70

Adriaen van Ostade

Frans Hals · 1646/1648 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.70

Shown from the waist up, a light-skinned man sits sideways in a wooden chair so the arm closer to us rests along the chair’s back in this vertical portrait painting. Brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the clothing and hair. The man’s right arm, to our left, drapes across the back of the chair. His face turns slightly to our right, and he looks at us with gray eyes under black, curving brows. He has an oval face with high cheekbones and a snub nose. His coral-pink lips are closed and framed by a mustache and pointed patch of hair under his lower lip. He is lit from our left so the far side of his face is in shadow. His loose, curly brown hair cascades over his shoulders. He wears a tall black hat with a stiff, wide brim with a black rosette or pompom on the brim to our right side. The hat is tipped slightly to one side so it angles away from us. A flat, stiff, white collar extends from his chin down to his shoulders, and two tassels hang at this throat. The voluminous sleeve along the back of the chair has a gold pattern picked out in loosely painted, swirling, feathered, and flaring lines against a black background. The jacket is unbuttoned along the forearm to reveal a stark white undershirt that is gathered with a narrow ruffle at the wrist. The chair has a crimson-red center framed by wooden rails to each side and along the top. The background is earth brown to our right of the man, and deepens to dark shadows along the left. A coat of arms, the size of the man’s palm, hangs from the back wall. Three black cow heads create an inverted triangle on a gold field. Under the coat of arms the artist inscribed, “AETA SVAE.22 1645.”
Frans Hals, Willem Coymans, 1645, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.69

Willem Coymans

Frans Hals · 1645 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.69

Shown from the hips up, a man with peachy skin and long, brown curly hair and goatee stands in front of a window opening onto a moonlit sky in this vertical portrait painting. His body faces our right and his right fist, closer to us, rests on his hip so his elbow juts toward us. Wearing a dark, wide brimmed hat, he turns his head to look over his right shoulder directly at us. His eyebrows are slightly raised over brown eyes, and he has a bumpy nose, a slight double chin, and pale pink lips that curve in the suggestion of a smile. He wears a golden yellow jacket with buttons along the sleeve we can see. The wrist of the jacket is trimmed with a wide, lace-edged cuff and a similarly wide, lace-trimmed collar lies over the armor breastplate that covers his chest. A marigold-orange sash is tied around the breastplate as well near the waist, and the goldenrod-yellow jacket drapes from a portly belly over his hips. He stands in front of a gray wall pierced with a rectangular window. The view has a veil of dark gray clouds over the moonlit sky.
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Member of the Haarlem Civic Guard, c. 1636/1638, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.68

Portrait of a Member of the Haarlem Civic Guard

Frans Hals · c. 1636/1638 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.68

This vertical portrait painting shows a pale-skinned older woman wearing a full, long-sleeved black dress with a wide white ruff at her neck and white lace cuffs at her wrists. She sits in a curving, low-backed wood chair against a pale brown background. Her body and the chair are angled slightly to our left, and she looks directly at us. She has small eyes, pink, rounded cheeks, and a wide chin. Her lips are parted in a slight smile, and her hair is covered by a starched, sheer white cap that flares at the sides. The ruff around her neck is gathered in accordion-like, narrow figure-eight folds, and it extends flat and stiff, nearly to her shoulders. Close inspection reveals that the dress is woven with a black-on-black brocade pattern and has a line of small black buttons down the front. She holds a small brown leather book tooled with gold ornament in her right hand, on our left, and her other hand rests on the arm of the chair. She wears a gold ring on each hand. An inscription is painted to our left of her head: “AETAT SVAE 60 ANo 1633.”
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Woman Aged Sixty, 1633, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.67

Portrait of a Woman Aged Sixty

Frans Hals · 1633 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.67

Shown from the waist up, a smiling, light-skinned young man wears a voluminous, dark hat and a brown suit in this vertical portrait painting. He sits with his body angled to our left so his right elbow, farther from us, hooks over the back of his wooden chair. He turns his face so his chin is pulled slightly back to look at us over his left shoulder with dark eyes under dark brows. His cheeks are flushed and his light brown mustache frames his pink lips, parted in a smile. His straight brown hair falls to his ears under a wide-brimmed hat as wide as his shoulders. The brim is pushed up and is broad enough that it covers the crown of the hat. A flat, white, lace-edged collar is tied with a red ribbon at his throat. Wide lace cuffs extend back along his forearms over his pecan-brown jacket, which is lined with a row of shiny buttons down the front. His left hand, closer to us, seems to rest on his lap just out of sight, so that elbow juts toward us. His other hand wraps in a fist around the finial of the chair back. He sits beyond an oval opening painted to resemble a stone frame within the rectangular panel. The face of the oval frame and the background behind the man are shades of peanut and fawn brown. The painting is created with fluid and loose brushstrokes, especially in the clothing.
Frans Hals, A Young Man in a Large Hat, 1626/1629, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.1.12

A Young Man in a Large Hat

Frans Hals · 1626/1629 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1940.1.12

""

Descartes

Jean-Baptiste de Grateloup · · stipple etching with mezzotint ·  Accession ID  1942.9.1564

Jonas Suyderhoff, Conrad Vietor van Aken, 1657, engraving, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.8066

Conrad Vietor van Aken

Jonas Suyderhoff · 1657 · engraving ·  Accession ID  1943.3.8066

Bibliography

1618

  • Mander, Karel van. Het Schilder-boek. 2nd ed. Amsterdam, 1618: fol. 130.

1628

  • Ampzing, Samuel. Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland. Haarlem, 1628: 371.

1648

  • Schrevelius, Theodorus. Harlemias, ofte, De eerst stichtinghe der stad Haarlem. Reprinted in 1754. Haarlem, 1648: 289.

1753

  • Houbraken, Arnold. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen. 3 vols. in 1. The Hague, 1753 (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976): 1:90-95.

1871

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. "Frans Hals und seine Schule." Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 4 (1871): 1-66.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 3(1910):1-139.

1921

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921; 2d ed., Stuttgart, Berlin, and Leipzig, 1923.

1962

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals: Exhibition on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Municipal Museum at Haarlem, 1862-1962. Exh. cat. Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, 1962.

1970

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. 3 vols. London and New York, 1970-1974.

1972

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: Entwicklung, Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatalog. Berlin, 1972.

1974

  • Jowell, Frances Suzman. "Thoré-Bürger and the Revival of Frans Hal." The Art Bulletin 56, no. 1 (March 1974): 101-117.

1981

  • Baard, H. P. Frans Hals. New York, 1981.

1988

  • Middelkoop, Norbert, and Anne van Grevenstein. Frans Hals: Life, Work, Restoration. Amsterdam, 1988.

1989

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem. London, 1989.

1990

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: The Complete Work. Translated by Jürgen Riehle. New York, 1990.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:154-155.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 65-66.

2006

  • Van Thiel-Stroman, Irene. "Frans Hals." In Painting in Haarlem 1500-1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum. Edited by Pieter Biesboer and Neeltje Köhler. Translated by Jennifer Kilian and Katy Kist. Ghent, 2006: 178-184.