2024-04-07 05:14:17
Portraits painted to order in the early 17th century rarely showed people smiling. Only Frans Hals changed it. The painter, who, alongside Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn, is one of the most recognized Dutch artists of all time, is commemorated in a new exhibition in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
A set of 48 works by Hals, including a portrait of the later member of the Estates-General Jasper Schade, on loan from the collections of the National Gallery in Prague, was first shown last year in London. Last month, it moved to the Dutch capital, where the organizers have already sold over 200,000 tickets. The show will run here until June 9, after which it will be on view at Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie from July 12 to November 3.
According to the AP agency, Hals, who lived from 1580 to 1666, was a painter and portraitist of mostly wealthy townspeople, known for his dissolute mood. He liked to indulge in alcohol, at the same time he struggled with debts all his life and his creditors took him to court several times.
“Nevertheless, people often smile or even laugh in his paintings, which is extraordinary in the 17th century,” states curator Friso Lammertse. Especially for commissioned portraits, it used to be the standard to portray the subject seriously until the 18th century. Laughing or smiling would be considered inappropriate. “But we can’t just attribute it to the fact that Hals liked to drink, and that’s why he adopted a more relaxed style. He was probably more fully aware of where European painting had gone at that time,” the expert thinks.
Hals became famous for commissioned portraits, from individual ones to group ones, such as the Feast of the Militiamen of St. Jiřà from 1616, i.e. still relatively from the beginning of his career.
Citizens of the independent cities of the Netherlands at that time had to serve in the militia. In the painter’s hometown of Haarlem, it used to be customary to honor the members of the units after they had fulfilled their duty with a rich feast. “And it became a tradition to record these joyful events on a large canvas,” described the creation of the painting in the book The Story of Art by art historian Ernst Gombrich.
Frans Hals: Banquet of members of the militia of St. George, 1616. | Photo: Rijksmuseum
According to him, Hals has unusually succeeded in portraying so many people on one canvas without looking stiff or artificial.
He brought life to the festive group without neglecting the purpose of the painting: to convincingly show each of the 12 militiamen in such a way that the viewer feels that he has seen him somewhere before. “From the burly colonel who presides over the corps at the head of the table and raises the goblet, to the young ensign at the other end, who, though not assigned a place, looks proudly out of the picture, as if he wants us to admire his splendid dress,” he interprets Gombrich.
The painting is part of the current exhibition, the museum in Haarlem has lent it for the first time in its history.
But Hals’ style continued to evolve. Compared to the more famous Rembrandt van Rijn, he used more daylight and silvery tones. His technique was influenced by his peer Peter Paul Rubens or a generation younger Anthonis van Dyck.
Perhaps also under their influence, Hals began to make faster, more dynamic and violent brushstrokes. In the late period, he applied colors in an increasingly sketchy manner, paving the way for Vincent van Gogh or Édouard Manet. Some French Impressionists later traveled to Hals’ native Haarlem to study his work in detail.
Frans Hals: Portrait of Pietera van den Broeckeho, 1633. | Photo: Rijksmuseum
“Today it is difficult to imagine how bold and unconventional these paintings were in the eyes of viewers. The very way in which Hals worked with paint and brush indicates how fast, fleeting impression he captured,” wrote the art historian Gombrich, according to whom the earlier portraits were usually painted with visible patience. After viewing the painting, it was clear to one that the subject had undergone several sessions for the painter to record all the details.
“Hals never allowed his model to get tired or bored. We feel like we’re witnessing how quickly and skillfully he worked with a brush to conjure up a figure with disheveled hair or a rolled-up sleeve with just a few touches of light and dark paint,” said Gombrich at the painter’s portrait of the merchant Pieter van den Broecke from 1633, which is also part of the current exhibition.
However, the art historian points out that in Hals’s case carelessness certainly did not play a role. He thought the composition well in advance.
Frans Hals also painted several genre paintings, but he is mainly famous for portraits. His distinctive handwriting is perhaps most accurately described by the most famous canvas called The Laughing Cavalier from 1624, which can also be seen in the Rijksmuseum. He records an unknown man in a hat, with a curled moustache, probably a soldier or at least a militia officer.
Visitors to the exhibition view the painting The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals from 1624. | Photo: Albertine Dijkema
The painting has a lively composition and, in addition to the mysterious smile of the person concerned, attracts the eyes fixed on the viewer.
The painting later made its way to London, where it was an extraordinary success and became part of the Wallace Collection, named after an important English patron. From the English capital, she traveled abroad for the first time since 1870, which underlines the importance of the current exhibition, writes the AP agency.
She recalls that the Rijksmuseum has celebrated success in recent years with popular exhibitions of the works of two 17th-century masters, Rembrandt van Rijn in 2019 and, most recently, last year with a retrospective of the Baroque master Jan Vermeer. “All three artists have one thing in common, that they created oil paintings, but each completely differently,” concludes museum director Taco Dibbits.
The last comparably large exhibition of works by Frans Hals took place between 1989 and 1990, jointly organized by London’s Royal Academy, the Hals Museum in Haarlem, and Washington’s National Gallery of Art.