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HALS, FRANS (158o?–1666)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 867 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HALS, FRANS (158o?–1666) , Dutch painter, was See also:born at See also:Antwerp according to the most See also:recent authorities in 1580 or 158r, and died at See also:Haarlem in 1666. As a portrait painter second only to See also:Rembrandt in See also:Holland, he displayed extraordinary See also:talent ap,d quickness in the exercise of. his See also:art coupled with improvidence in the use of the means which that art secured to him. At a See also:time when the Dutch nation fought for See also:independence and won it, Hals appears in the ranks of its military See also:gilds. He was also a member of the Chamber of See also:Rhetoric, and (1644) See also:chair-See also:man of the Painters' See also:Corporation at Haarlem. But as a man he had failings. He so See also:ill-treated his first wife, Anneke Hermansz, II that she died prematurely in 1616; and he barely saved the See also:character of his second, Lysbeth Reyniers, by marrying her in 1617. Another defect was partiality to drink, which led him into See also:low See also:company. Still he brought up and supported a See also:family of ten See also:children with success till 1652, when the forced See also:sale of his pictures and See also:furniture, at the suit of a See also:baker to whom he was indebted for See also:bread and See also:money, brought him to See also:absolute penury. The See also:inventory of the See also:property seized on this occasion only mentions three mattresses and bolsters, an See also:armoire, a table and five pictures. This humble See also:list represents all his worldly possessions at the time of his See also:bankruptcy. Subsequently to this he was reduced to still greater straits, and his See also:rent and firing were paid by the See also:municipality, which afterwards gave him (1664) an See also:annuity of 200 florins. We may admire the spirit which enabled him to produce some of his most striking See also:works in his unhappy circumstances: we find his widow seeking outdoor See also:relief from the guardians of the poor, and dying obscurely in a See also:hospital.

Hals's pictures illustrate the various strata of society into which his misfortunes led him. His banquets or meetings of See also:

officers, of sharpshooters, and gildsmen are the most interesting of his works. But they are not more characteristic than his low-See also:life pictures of itinerant players and singers. His portraits of gentlefolk are true and See also:noble, but hardly so expressive as those of fishwives and See also:tavern heroes. His first See also:master at Antwerp was probably See also:van Noort, as has been suggested by M. G. S. See also:Davies, but on his removal toHaarlem Frans Hals entered the atelier of van See also:Mander, the painter and historian, of whom he possessed some pictures which went to pay the See also:debt of the baker already alluded to. But he soon improved upon the practice of the time, illustrated by J. van Schoreel and See also:Antonio See also:Moro, and, emancipating himself gradually from tradition, produced pictures remarkable for truth and dexterity of See also:hand. We See also:prize in Rembrandt the See also:golden glow of effects based upon artificial contrasts of low See also:light in immeasurable gloom. Hals was fond of daylight of silvery sheen. Both men were painters of See also:touch, but of touch on different keys—Rembrandt was the See also:bass, Hals the See also:treble.

The latter is perhaps more expressive than the former. He seizes with rare See also:

intuition a moment in the life of his sitters. What nature displays in that moment he reproduces thoroughly in a very delicate See also:scale of See also:colour, and with a perfect mastery over every See also:form of expression. He becomes so See also:clever at last that exact See also:tone, light and shade, and modelling are all obtained with a few marked and fluid strokes of the See also:brush. In every form of his art we can distinguish his earlier See also:style ,from that of later years. It is curious that we have no See also:record of any See also:work produced by him in the first See also:decade of his See also:independent activity, See also:save an See also:engraving by See also:Jan van de Velde after a lost portrait of " The See also:Minister Johannes Bogardus," who died in 1614. The earliest works by Frans Hals that have come down to us, " Two Boys Playing and Singing " in the See also:gallery of See also:Cassel, and a " Banquet of the officers of the `St See also:Joris Doele' " or Arquebusiers of St See also:George (1616) in the museum of Haarlem, exhibit him as a careful draughtsman capable of See also:great finish, yet spirited withal. His flesh, less clear than it afterwards becomes, is pastose and burnished. Later he becomes more effective, displays more freedom of hand, and a greater command of effect. At this See also:period we See also:note the beautiful full-length of " Madame van Beresteyn " at the Louvre in See also:Paris, and a splendid full-length portrait of " Willem van Heythuysen " leaning on a See also:sword in the See also:Liechtenstein collection at See also:Vienna. Both these pictures are equalled by the other•" Banquet of the officers, of the Arquebusiers of St George " (with different portraits) and the " Banquet of the officers of the ` Cloveniers , Doelen ' " or Arquebusiers of St See also:Andrew of 1627 and an " See also:Assembly of the officers of the Arquebusiers of St Andrew " of 1633 in the Haarlem Museum. A picture of the same See also:kind in the See also:town See also:hall of See also:Amsterdam, with the date of 1637, suggests some study of the masterpieces of Rembrandt, and a similar See also:influence is apparent in a picture of 1641 at Haarlem, representing the " Regents of the Company of St See also:Elizabeth " and in theportrait of " Maria Voogt " at Amsterdam.

But Rembrandt's example did not create a lasting impression on Hals. He gradually dropped more and more into See also:

grey and silvery harmonies of tone; and two of his canvases, executed in 1664, " The Regents and Regentesses of the Oudemannenhuis " at Haarlem, are masterpieces of colour, though in substance all but mono-chromes. In fact, ever since 1641 Hals had shown a tendency to restrict the See also:gamut of his See also:palette, and to suggest colour rather than See also:express it. This is particularly noticeable in his flesh tints which from See also:year to year became more grey, until finally the shadows were painted in almost absolute See also:black, as in the " Tymane Oosdorp," of the See also:Berlin Gallery. As this tendency coincides with the period of his poverty, it has been suggested that one of the reasons, if not the only See also:reason, of his predilection for black and See also:white pigment was the cheapness of these See also:colours as compared with the costly lakes and carmines. See also:Asa portrait painter Frans Hals had scarcely the psychological insight of a Rembrandt or See also:Velazquez, though in a few works, like the " See also:Admiral de Ruyter," in See also:Earl See also:Spencer's collection, the " See also:Jacob Olycan " at the See also:Hague Gallery, and the " See also:Albert van der See also:Meer " at Haarlem town hall, he reveals a searching See also:analysis of character which has little in See also:common with the instantaneous expression of his so-called " character " portraits. In these he generally sets upon the See also:canvas the fleeting aspect of the various stages of merriment, from the subtle, See also:half ironic smile that quivers See also:round the lips of the curiously misnamed " Laughing See also:Cavalier " in the See also:Wallace Collection to the See also:imbecile grin of the " Hille Bobbe " in the Berlin Museum. To this See also:group of pictures belong See also:Baron Gustav See also:Rothschild's " See also:Jester," the " Bohemienne " at the Louvre, and the "See also:Fisher Boy" at Antwerp, whilst the " Portrait of the Artist with his second Wife " at the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam, and the somewhat confused group of the "Beresteyn Family " at the Louvre show a similar tendency. Far less scattered in arrangement than this Beresteyn group, and in every respect one of the most masterly of Frans Hals's achievements is the group called " The Painter and his Family " in the See also:possession of See also:Colonel Warde, which was almost unknown until it appeared at the See also:winter See also:exhibition at the Royal See also:Academy in 1906. Though a visit to Haarlem town hall, which contains the five enormous Doelen See also:groups and the two Regenten pictures, is as necessary for the student of Hals's art as a visit to the Prado in See also:Madrid is for the student of Velazquez, See also:good examples of the Dutch master have found their way into most of the leading public and private collections. In the See also:British Isles, besides the works already mentioned, portraits from his brush are to be found at the See also:National Gallery, the See also:Edinburgh Gallery, the See also:Glasgow Corporation Gallery, See also:Hampton See also:Court, See also:Buckingham See also:Palace, See also:Devonshire See also:House, and the collections of See also:Lord Northbrooke, Lord See also:Ellesmere, Lord Iveagh and Lord Spencer. At Amsterdam is the celebrated " See also:Flute Player," once in the Dupper collection at See also:Dort; at See also:Brussels, the patrician "Heythuysen "; at the Louvre, " See also:Descartes "; at See also:Dresden, the painter " Van der Vinne." Hals's sitters were taken from every class of society—admirals, generals and burgomasters pairing with merchants, lawyers, clerks.

To See also:

register all that we find in public galleries would involve much space. There are eight portraits at Berlin, six at Cassel, five at St See also:Petersburg, six at the Louvre, two at Brussels, five at Dresden, two at See also:Gotha. In private collections, chiefly in Paris, Haarlem and Vienna, we find an equally important number. Amongst the painter's most successful representations of fishwives and termagants we should distinguish the " Hille Bobbe " of the Berlin Museum, and the " Hille Bobbe with her Son " in the Dresden Gallery. Itinerant players are best illustrated in the See also:Neville-See also:Goldsmith collection at the Hague, and the Six collection at Amsterdam. Boys and girls singing, playing or laughing, or men drinking, are to be found in the gallery of See also:Schwerin, in the Arenberg collection, and in the royal palace at Brussels. For two centuries after his See also:death Frans Hals was held in such poor esteem that some of his paintings, which are now among the proudest possessions of public galleries, were sold at See also:auction for a few pounds or even shillings. The portrait of " Johannes Acronius," now at the Berlin Museum, realized five shillings at the See also:Enschede sale in 1786. The splendid portrait of the man with the sword at the Liechtenstein gallery was sold in 'Soo for £4, 5s. With his rehabilitation in public esteem came the enormous rise in values, and, at the Secretan sale in 1889, the portrait of " Pieter van de Broecke d'Anvers " was bid up to £4420, while in 1908 the National Gallery paid £25,000 for the large group from the collection of Lord See also:Talbot de Malahide. Of the master's numerous family none has See also:left a name except FRANS HALS THE YOUNGER, born about 1622, who died in 1669. His pictures represent cottages and poultry; and the " Vanitas " at Berlin, a table laden with See also:gold and See also:silver dishes, cups, glasses and books, is one of his finest works and deserving of a passing glance.

Quite in another form, and with much of the freedom of the See also:

elder Hals, See also:DIRK HALS, his See also:brother (born at Haarlem, died 1656), is a painter of festivals and See also:bali-rooms. But Dirk had too much of the freedom and too little of the skill in See also:drawing which characterized his brother. He remains second on his own ground to See also:Palamedes. A See also:fair specimen of his art is a " See also:Lady playing a See also:Harpsichord to a See also:Young Girl and her See also:Lover " in the van der Hoop collection at Amsterdam, now in the Ryks Museum. More characteristic, but not better, is a large company of See also:gentle-folk rising from See also:dinner, in the Academy at Vienna.

End of Article: HALS, FRANS (158o?–1666)

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