Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
frans hals
(c. 1582-1666)
At age 10, Frans Hals, the son of a weaver, moved with his
family to Haarlem. He would spend the rest of his life there,
rarely traveling even to nearby Amsterdam.
His early years are known to us only through his paint-
ings of taverns and drunks, musicians and actors, done in a
free and colorful style (like the Rijksmuseum's
Merry Drinker
,
page 117). In 1610, he married and joined Haarlem's St. Luke's
Guild of painters. In 1612, he was admitted to the prestigious
St. George Civic Guard. In 1617, widowed Hals married again,
producing (altogether) ten children, five of whom took up
painting.
Hals' group portrait of the St. George Civic Guard (1616)
put him on the map as Haarlem's premier portrait painter. For
the next five decades, he abandoned the lighthearted slice-of-
life scenes of his youth and dedicated himself to chronicling
Haarlem's prosperous, middle-class world of businessmen
and professionals—people he knew personally, as well as pro-
fessionally.
Despite his success, Hals had trouble with money. In 1654,
he had to sell his belongings to pay debts, and he fought pov-
erty the rest of his life. Commissions became scarce, as the
public now preferred more elegant, flattering portraits. His
final works (1650-1666) are dark and somber, with increas-
ingly rough and simple brushwork.
In 1664, the city granted him a pension for his years of
service. When he died two years later, his work quickly passed
out of fashion, dismissed as mere portraiture. In the 1800s,
the Impressionists rediscovered him, and today he's recog-
nized for his innovations, craftsmanship, and unique style.
sticks his elbow in our faces (another Hals trademark) to define a
distinct foreground, while the flag-bearer stakes out the middle
ground, and a window at the back opens up to a distant, airy
background.
Then Hals sets the scene in motion. A guy on the left side
leans over to tell a joke to his friend. The dashing young f lag-
bearer in the middle turns back to listen to the bald-headed man.
An ensign (standing, right side) enters and doffs his cap to Captain
Van der Meer. And then we barge in, interrupting the banquet,
but welcomed as one of the boys.
Banquet of the Officers of the Civic Guard of St. Adrian
(1627)
The men are bunched into two symmetrical groups, left and right,
with a window in the back. The figures form a Y, with a tilted
