Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
were satisfied with their portrait. By the way, the man just to the
right of center isn't drunk, but suffering from facial paralysis. To
the end, Hals respected unvarnished reality.
• Directly behind you, find the...
Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse
(1664)
These women ran the women's wing of the almshouse, located
across the street. Except for a little rouge on the women's pale-
as-death faces, this canvas is almost
a study in gray and black, as Hals
pared his palette down to the bare
essentials. The faces are subtle varia-
tions on old age. Only the woman on
the right resolutely returns our gaze.
The man who painted this was
old, poor, out of fashion, in failing
health, perhaps bitter, and dying. In
contrast with the lively group scenes
of Hals' youth, these individuals stand forever isolated. They don't
look at each other, each lost in their own thoughts, perhaps con-
templating their own mortality (or stifling belches). Their only
link to one another is the tenuous, slanting line formed by their
hands, leading to the servant who enters the room with a mysteri-
ous message.
Could that message be...death? Or just that this tour is over?
