Although we do not know exactly when (between 1585 and 1590) Frans Hals was born in Antwerp, we do know that he must have been one of the greatest portrait painters of his time. Even his contemporaries raved about the great accuracy and the very lively characterization of his figures. Already legendary during his lifetime, many streets in Holland, Belgium and Germany, as well as a EuroCity express train, are still named after him today.
The religious conflict between Spain and the Netherlands brought the family of the cloth merchant Franchoys Hals from Antwerp to Haarlem around 1590, where Frans Hals learned the craft of painting from 1603. Although he had been a member of the "Lukasgilde" - Haarlem's painters' guild - since 1610, Frans Hals was and remained a poor wretch throughout his life - for example, he had to bury his first wife in a pauper's grave. At that time one obviously did not get rich from paintings, moreover he had ten children to feed.
Instead of getting involved in historical or landscape painting, Frans Hals specialized in the commissioned jobs of his time, in portraits. He painted all the portraits of the Haarlem Shooting Guild, the "city militia" in those warlike times. When the portraits of the marksmen's guild were out of fashion, Hals switched to group pictures, but continued to capture famous contemporaries on canvas, such as the famous portrait of the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes or the painter and art collector Jan van de Capelle. His studies of unknown "little people", however, are even more impressive to today's viewers: Hals was not too ashamed to paint gypsy women or even alcoholics. With them he could also give free rein to his powers of observation instead of diplomatically restraining them.
Along with Anthonis van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals is counted among the "Big Three" of that era of portrait painting. When Hals was elected president of the Luke Guild in 1644, Rubens and van Dyck had died shortly before.
More than 200 paintings can be clearly attributed to Frans Hals, in addition to over a hundred others whose authorship is not certain - if only because Frans Hals trained five of his sons as painters as well. The portrait of René Descartes is, of course, just as undoubtedly his work as "The Officers' Banquet" and "The Rommelpot Player".
Although we do not know exactly when (between 1585 and 1590) Frans Hals was born in Antwerp, we do know that he must have been one of the greatest portrait painters of his time. Even his contemporaries raved about the great accuracy and the very lively characterization of his figures. Already legendary during his lifetime, many streets in Holland, Belgium and Germany, as well as a EuroCity express train, are still named after him today.
The religious conflict between Spain and the Netherlands brought the family of the cloth merchant Franchoys Hals from Antwerp to Haarlem around 1590, where Frans Hals learned the craft of painting from 1603. Although he had been a member of the "Lukasgilde" - Haarlem's painters' guild - since 1610, Frans Hals was and remained a poor wretch throughout his life - for example, he had to bury his first wife in a pauper's grave. At that time one obviously did not get rich from paintings, moreover he had ten children to feed.
Instead of getting involved in historical or landscape painting, Frans Hals specialized in the commissioned jobs of his time, in portraits. He painted all the portraits of the Haarlem Shooting Guild, the "city militia" in those warlike times. When the portraits of the marksmen's guild were out of fashion, Hals switched to group pictures, but continued to capture famous contemporaries on canvas, such as the famous portrait of the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes or the painter and art collector Jan van de Capelle. His studies of unknown "little people", however, are even more impressive to today's viewers: Hals was not too ashamed to paint gypsy women or even alcoholics. With them he could also give free rein to his powers of observation instead of diplomatically restraining them.
Along with Anthonis van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals is counted among the "Big Three" of that era of portrait painting. When Hals was elected president of the Luke Guild in 1644, Rubens and van Dyck had died shortly before.
More than 200 paintings can be clearly attributed to Frans Hals, in addition to over a hundred others whose authorship is not certain - if only because Frans Hals trained five of his sons as painters as well. The portrait of René Descartes is, of course, just as undoubtedly his work as "The Officers' Banquet" and "The Rommelpot Player".
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