Portrait of a Man

1648/1650

Frans Hals

Artist, Dutch, c. 1582/1583 - 1666

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.”

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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.

This portrait of an unknown sitter bears Frans Hals’ monogram FH in the lower left. The sitter may have been a fellow artist: with his right hand covering the area of the heart, the man not only conveys his sincerity and passion but also proclaims his artistic sensibility.

The fluid brushstrokes defining individual strands of hair are consistent with Hals’ work from the end of the 1640s, a period in which hats with cylindrical crowns and upturned brims, such as the one shown here, were fashionable. Interestingly, this man’s hair was extended and the hat painted out sometime before 1673. In 1990–1991 National Gallery of Art conservators removed the overpaint of prior treatments that had lengthened the hair and hidden the hat, thereby restoring the portrait’s original appearance.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 46

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 63.5 x 53.5 cm (25 x 21 1/16 in.)
    framed: 92.4 x 81.3 x 9.2 cm (36 3/8 x 32 x 3 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.28

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Portrait of a Man, 1648/1650

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

Remi van Haanen [1812-1894], Vienna, by 1873.[1] (Mssrs. Lawrie & Co., London, by March 1898);[2] (Bourgeois Frères, Paris), in 1898; (Leo Nardus [1868-1955], Suresnes, France, and New York); sold 1898 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Remi van Haanen was a Dutch painter who was active in Vienna after he moved to Austria in 1837. He lent the painting to an exhibition in Vienna in 1873. The painting is also cited as being owned by Van Haanen by Wilhelm von Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei, Braunschweig, 1883: 89.
[2] Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century..., 8 vols., trans. and ed. by Edward G. Hawke, London, 1907-1927, 3(1910): 89, no. 311.
[3] The 1898 date for Bourgeois and Nardus is according to notes by Edith Standen, Widener’s secretary for art, in NGA curatorial files. Stephen Bourgeois of Bourgeois Frères was Nardus’ father-in-law. The Widener files and Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Collection of P. A.B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia, 2 vols., Paris, 1885–1900: 2:207, list the previous owner as Roo van Westmaas, Woortman, Holland, but no supporting evidence has been found for this name, and there is no town of Woortman in the Netherlands. In fact, Hofstede de Groot (or one of his German assistants) annotated a copy of his own work on Hals with a note indicating that Nardus had provided a purely ficticious provenance for the painting: “…die in Katalog angegebene Provenienz aus Sammulungen, die nie exisistiert haben, berucht auf intümlicher von Nardus” (handwritten note, Handexemplaren Hofstede de Groot, Frans Hals #311, Rijksbureau voor kunsthistorische documentatie, The Hague; found and kindly shared with NGA by Jonathan Lopez, per his letter of 24 April 2006 and e-mail of 1 May 2006, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1873

  • Gemälde alter Meister aus dem Wiener Privatbesitze, Österreichisches Museum für Künst und Industrie, Vienna, 1873, no. 38.

1909

  • The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909, no. 32, repro.

Bibliography

1873

  • Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie. Gemälde alter Meister aus dem Wiener Privatbesitze. Exh. cat. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, Vienna, 1873: 10, no. 38.

1883

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei. Braunschweig, 1883: 89, no. 122.

1885

  • Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Collection of P.A.B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. 2 vols. Paris, 1885-1900: 2(1900):no. 207, repro.

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):89, no. 311.

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 3(1910):88, no. 311.

1908

  • Martin, Wilhelm. "Notes on Some Pictures in American Private Collections." The Burlington Magazine 14 (October 1908): 59-60, pl. 2.

1909

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Catalogue of a collection of paintings by Dutch masters of the seventeenth century. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration 1. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1909: 33, no. 32, repro., 154, 161.

1910

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Old Dutch Masters Held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Connection with the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. New York, 1910: 128, no. 32, repro. 129.

  • Cox, Kenyon. "Art in America, Dutch Paintings in the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition II." The Burlington Magazine 16, no. 82 (January 1910): 245.

1913

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch & Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, no. 13, repro.

1914

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, and Moritz Julius Binder. Frans Hals: Sein Leben und seine Werke. 2 vols. Berlin, 1914: 2:59, 191, pl. 120b.

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, and Moritz Julius Binder. Frans Hals: His Life and Work. 2 vols. Translated by Maurice W. Brockwell. Berlin, 1914: 2:no. 191, pl. 120b.

1921

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals: des meisters Gemälde in 318 Abbildungen. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 28. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921: 320, 238, repro.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals: des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abbildungen. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 28. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, Berlin, and Leipzig, 1923: 321, 251, repro.

1930

  • Dülberg, Franz. Frans Hals: Ein Leben und ein Werk. Stuttgart, 1930: 198, 223.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 80, repro.

1936

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Frans Hals Paintings in America. Westport, Connecticut, 1936: no. 96, repro.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Works of art from the Widener collection. Washington, 1942: 5, no. 624.

1948

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 51, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 337, 311, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 66.

1968

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

1970

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. 3 vols. National Gallery of Art Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art. London, 1970–1974: 2(1970):no. 310, repro.; 3(1974):102-103, no. 198.

1972

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: Entwicklung, Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatolog. Berlin, 1972: 24, 28, 107, 205, no. 137, fig. 161.

1974

  • Montagni, E.C. L’opera completa di Frans Hals. Classici dell’Arte. Milan, 1974: 106, no. 187, repro.

1975

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

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 268-269, no. 353, repro.

1976

  • Montagni, E.C. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Frans Hals. Translated by Simone Darses. Les classiques de l'art. Paris, 1976: no. 187, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 268, no. 347, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 197, repro.

1989

  • Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem. London, 1989: no. 73, repro.

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: das Gesamtwerk. Stuttgart, 1989: 194-195, 288, no.132, repro.

1990

  • Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: The Complete Work. Translated by Jürgen Riehle. New York, 1990: 194-195, 288, no. 132, repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 85-88, color repro. 87.

  • Grassi, Marco. "Art and Alchemy." Art & Auction 17 (June 1995): 88–91; 122, repro.

2021

  • Quodbach, Esmée. "A forgotten episode from America's history of collecting: the rise and fall of art dealer Leo Nardus, 1894-1908." Simiolus 43, no. 4 (2021): 353-375, esp. 373 n. 79.

Inscriptions

lower left in monogram: FH

Wikidata ID

Q18032401

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