Adriaen van Ostade

1646/1648

Frans Hals

Artist, Dutch, c. 1582/1583 - 1666

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.

Media Options

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Frans Hals was the preeminent portrait painter in Haarlem, the most important artistic center of Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century. He was famous for his uncanny ability to portray his subjects with relatively few bold brushstrokes, and often used informal poses to enliven his portraits.

Hals depicted his colleague the artist Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685) as a refined gentleman wearing fashionable apparel, including the gloves that were an essential accessory of the social elite in this period. Van Ostade holds his right glove in his left hand, and his casual pose adds to the lifelike character of the portrait, further reinforced by the extraordinary abstract brushwork.

Prior to entering Haarlem’s Saint Luke’s Guild in 1634, Van Ostade had probably been Hals’ pupil. He specialized in scenes of peasant life, such as The Cottage Dooryard in the National Gallery’s collection. In 1647 Van Ostade was elected to serve as one of the headmen of the Saint Luke’s Guild, so he may have commissioned Hals to paint his portrait to commemorate this high point in his career.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 46

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 94 × 75 cm (37 × 29 1/2 in.)
    framed: 119.06 × 99.22 × 9.53 cm (46 7/8 × 39 1/16 × 3 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.70

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Adriaen van Ostade, 1646/1648

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Buckston family, Sutton on the Hill, Derbyshire; (sale, Sotheby & Co., London, 5-6 May 1919, 2nd day, no. 285);[1] Brown, acting for (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Arthur J. Sulley & Co., and Colnaghi & Co., London);[2] purchased 9 May 1919 by (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York); sold 1 November 1919 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[3] deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] In this auction the picture was listed as Portrait of the Artist by Nicholas Berghem [Berchem]. The auction catalogue states that the painting was "The Property of a Gentleman". Francis Russell of Christie's kindly provided the name of the family that consigned the painting (letter of 10 March 2003 to Arthur Wheelock, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] The fact that the purchase was by joint account of the three dealers is given in the Public Collections section of The Getty Provenance Index Databases. The painting was Agnew’s joint account number J-1817 and Colnaghi’s number A-720. Colnaghi also sold one third of their share to H.M. Clark. Christopher Kingzett of Agnew’s confirmed Agnew’s purchase of the painting at the 1919 sale, but does not mention the joint account with Sulley and Colnaghi (letter, 7 March 1984, to Arthur Wheelock, in NGA curatorial files).
[3] Letter, 14 February 1984, Nancy Little, Librarian at M. Knoedler & Co., to Arthur Wheelock, in NGA curatorial files. Knoedler’s recorded their purchase as from Agnew’s; the painting was Knoedler stock number 14774.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1925

  • Paintings by Old Masters from Pittsburgh Collections, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1925, no. 24, as Nicholas Berghen [Berchem].

Bibliography

1925

  • Carnegie Institute. An Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters from the Pittsburgh Collections. Exh. cat. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1925: no. 24.

1935

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "New Additions to the Work of Frans Hals." Art in America 23 (June 1935): 86-103, no. 21, fig. 2.

1936

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals Paintings in America. Westport, Connecticut, 1936: no. 100, repro.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 95, no. 70, as Portrait of a Man.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Book of illustrations. 2nd ed. Washington, 1942: 70, repro. 24, 240, as Portrait of a Man.

1949

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 79, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 337, 312, repro., as Portrait of a Man.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 65, as Portrait of a Man.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 58, repro., as Portrait of a Man.

1970

  • Grimm, Claus. "Ein meisterliches Künstlerporträt: Frans Hals’ Ostade-Bildnis." _Oud Holland _ 85 (1970): 146-178, fig. 24.

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. 3 vols. National Gallery of Art Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art. London, 1970–1974: 1(1970):190-191, fig. 203; 2(1970):fig. 303; 3(1974):78-79, 99-100, no. 192.

1971

  • Grimm, Claus. "Frans Hals und seine Schule." Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 22 (1971): 146-178, fig. 24.

1972

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: Entwicklung, Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatolog. Berlin, 1972: 105-106, 204, no. 122, figs. 136-138, 142.

1974

  • Montagni, E.C. L’opera completa di Frans Hals. Classici dell’Arte. Milan, 1974: 105, no. 72, repro.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 170, repro., as Portrait of a Man.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 268-269, no. 356, repro.

1976

  • Montagni, E.C. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Frans Hals. Translated by Simone Darses. Les classiques de l'art. Paris, 1976: no. 72, repro.

1981

  • Baard, H. P. Frans Hals. New York, 1981: 138.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 268, no. 350, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 196, repro.

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids and Kampen, 1986: 308-309.

1988

  • Middelkoop, Norbert, and Anne van Grevenstein. Frans Hals: Life, Work, Restoration. Translated by Rollin Cochrane. Gloucester, 1988: 72-73, repro.

1990

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: The Complete Work. Translated by Jürgen Riehle. New York, 1990: 46-49, fig. 40e, 256, fig. 104b, 287, no. 123, repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 79-83, color repro. 81.

2007

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., and Michael Swicklik. "Behind the Veil: Restoration of a Dutch Marine Painting Offers a New Look at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and History." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 37 (Fall 2007): 2, 4, fig. 2.

Wikidata ID

Q18030849

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