View source for Frans Hals

{{Short description|Painter from the Northern Netherlands (c. 1582–1666)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Frans Hals
| image            = After Frans Hals - Portrait of Frans Hals - Indianapolis.jpg
| image_size       = 220
| caption          = Copy of a ''[[Self-portrait]]'' by Hals
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{circa|1582}}
| birth_place      = [[Antwerp]], [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]], [[Spanish Netherlands]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1666|8|26|1582|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Haarlem]], [[Dutch Republic]]
| nationality      = [[Netherlands|Dutch]]
| field            = 
| training         = 
| movement         = 
| works            = ''[[The Gypsy Girl (Hals)|The Gypsy Girl]]'' (1628)<br />''[[Laughing Cavalier]]'' (1624)<br />''[[Laughing Boy (painting)|Laughing Boy]]'' ({{circa|1625}})
| patrons          = 
| awards           = 
| influenced       = 
| module           = {{Infobox person|child=yes
| signature        = Signatur Frans Hals.PNG}}
}}
'''Frans Hals the Elder''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|h|æ|l|s}},<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Hals,+Frans |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826094024/https://www.dictionary.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 August 2022 |title=Hals, Frans |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|US|h|ɑː|l|s|,_|h|æ|l|z|,_|h|ɑː|l|z}};<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Hals|access-date=15 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite American Heritage Dictionary|Hals|access-date=15 August 2019}}</ref><ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hals "Hals"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212025135/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hals |date=12 February 2015 }}. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{IPA|nl|frɑns ˈɦɑls|lang}}; {{circa|1582}} – 26 August 1666) was a [[Dutch Golden Age painter]]. He lived and worked in [[Haarlem]], a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate their homes with works of art.<ref>{{Citation |last=Grijzenhout |first=Frans |title=The Religion(s) of Frans Hals |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=14–30 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.5 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |doi=10.2307/jj.22135982.5 |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Hals was highly sought after by wealthy [[Bourgeoisie|burgher]] commissioners of individual, married-couple,<ref>{{Citation |last=den Tonkelaar |first=Emilie |title=From a Parisian Dining Room to a German Private Museum: Frans Hals in the Collections of Count André Mniszech and Marcus Kappel |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=194–210 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.16?seq=5 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> family, and institutional-group [[Portrait painting|portraits]].<ref>{{Citation |last=van Roon |first=Marike |title=Painted Stitches: Embroidery and the Paintings of Frans Hals |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=49–64 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.7 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |doi=10.2307/jj.22135982.7 |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=te Marvelde |first=Mireille |title=A Box Full of Research: Early Twentieth-Century Documentation on the Scientific Investigation and Restoration of the Eight Group Portraits by Frans Hals |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=110–129 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.11 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |last2=Abraham |first2=Liesbeth |last3=van Putten |first3=Herman |last4=Franken |first4=Michiel |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> He also painted [[tronie]]s for the general market.<ref>{{Citation |last=Atkins |first=Christopher D.M. |title=Peeckelhaering and the Performance of Race |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=31–48 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.6 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |doi=10.2307/jj.22135982.6 |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

There were two quite distinct schools of portraiture in 17th-century Haarlem: the neat (represented, for example, by [[Verspronck]]); and a looser, more [[painterly]] style at which Frans Hals excelled. Some of Hals's portrait work is characterised by a subdued palette, reflecting the politely serious tones of his fashionable clients' wardrobe. In contrast, the personalities he paints are full of life, typically with a friendly glint in the eye or the glimmer of a smile on the lips.

Hals was born at [[Antwerp]] in the southern Spanish Netherlands, but because of the [[Sack of Antwerp|chaos wrought there by the Spanish at that time]], his family moved to Haarlem when he was little. Many of his Haarlem clients were also [[émigré]]s from the South.

==Biography==
Hals was born in 1582 or 1583 in [[Antwerp]], then in the [[Spanish Netherlands]], as the son of cloth merchant Franchois Fransz Hals van Mechelen ({{circa|lk=no}} 1542–1610) and his second wife Adriaentje van Geertenryck.<ref name=RKD>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150513075730/https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/35550 Frans Hals] iat the [[Netherlands Institute for Art History]] {{in lang|nl}}<!--Middle Dutch--></ref> Like many, Hals's parents fled during<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hals/hd_hals.htm|title=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History|last=Liedtke|first=Walter|date=August 2011|website=metmuseum.org|access-date=29 March 2020|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417210717/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hals/hd_hals.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Fall of Antwerp]] (1584–1585) from the south to Haarlem in the new [[Dutch Republic]] in the north, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Hals studied under [[Flemish people|Flemish]] émigré [[Karel van Mander]],<ref name=RKD/><ref>Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, and P. Biesboer (1989). ''Frans Hals''. Munich: Prestel. p. 379.</ref> whose [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] influence, however, is barely noticeable in Hals's work.

In 1610, Hals became a member of the [[Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke]], and he started to earn money as an art restorer for the town council. He worked on their large art collection, which Karel van Mander had described in his ''[[Schilderboeck]]'' ("Painter's Book") published in Haarlem in 1604. The most notable works were those of [[Geertgen tot Sint Jans]], [[Jan van Scorel]], and [[Jan Mostaert]] that hung in the [[Janskerk (Haarlem)|St John's Church]] in Haarlem. The restoration work was paid for by the council. The council had confiscated all Catholic religious art in the ''[[Haarlem#Religion|Haarlemse Noon]]'', although it did not formally possess the entire collection until 1625, when the city fathers had decided which were suitable for the town hall. The remaining art, which was considered too Roman Catholic, was sold to [[Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen]], a fellow guild member, on condition that he remove it from Haarlem. It was in this cultural context that Hals began his career in portraiture, since the market had disappeared for religious themes.

The earliest known example of Hals's art is the portrait of ''[[Jacobus Zaffius]]'' (1611). His 'breakthrough' came with the life-sized group portrait ''[[The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616]]''. His most famous sitter was ''[[René Descartes]]'', whom he painted in 1649.

[[File:Frans-hals-standbeeld-florapark.JPG|thumb|Statue of Frans Hals in Florapark, Haarlem]]

Frans Hals married his first wife Anneke Harmensdochter around 1610. Frans was of Catholic birth, however, so their marriage was recorded in the city hall and not in church.<ref name="JJVH">[http://nha.courant.nu/issue/JJVH/1973-01-01/edition/null/page/251 Anneke Harmensdr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014135028/http://nha.courant.nu/issue/JJVH/1973-01-01/edition/null/page/251 |date=14 October 2017 }} in ''Nieuwe gegevens betreffende Anneke Harmansdr., de eerste echtegonte van Frans Hals'', by M. Thierry de Bye Dolleman working from research by C.A. de Goederen-van Hees, pp. 249-257, Haerlem: jaarboek 1973, ISSN 0927-0728, on the website of the North Holland Archives</ref> Unfortunately, the exact date is unknown because the older marriage records of the Haarlem city hall before 1688 have not been preserved.<ref name=JJVH/> Anneke was born 2 January 1590 as the daughter of bleacher Harmen Dircksz and Pietertje Claesdr Ghijblant, and her maternal grandfather, linen producer Claes Ghijblant of [[:File:Haarlem - Spaarne 42.JPG|Spaarne 42]], bequeathed the couple the grave in the [[Grote Kerk, Haarlem|Grote Kerk church]] where both are buried, though Frans took over 40 years to join his first wife there.<ref name=JJVH/> Anneke died in 1615, shortly after the birth of their third child and, of the three, [[Harmen Hals|Harmen]] survived infancy and one had died before Hals's second marriage.<ref name=JJVH/> 

As biographer [[Seymour Slive]] has pointed out, older stories of Hals abusing his first wife were confused with another Haarlem resident of the same name. Indeed, at the time of these charges, the artist had no wife to mistreat, as Anneke had died in May 1615.<ref>Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, and [[Pieter Biesboer]] (1989). ''Frans Hals''. Munich: Prestel. p. 376.</ref> Similarly, historical accounts of Hals's propensity for drink were largely based on embellished anecdotes of his early biographers like [[Arnold Houbraken]]; there is no direct evidence that Hals did drink heavily. After his first wife died, Hals took on the young daughter of a fishmonger to look after his children and, in 1617, he married Lysbeth Reyniers. They married in [[Spaarndam]], a small village outside the [[banns]] of Haarlem, because she was already eight months pregnant. Hals was a devoted father, and they went on to have eight children.<ref>[http://www.wga.hu/index1.html See Hals biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001032054/http://www.wga.hu/index1.html |date=1 October 2007 }} in the Web Gallery of Art</ref>

Contemporaries such as [[Rembrandt]] moved their households according to the caprices of their patrons, but Hals remained in Haarlem and insisted that his customers come to him. According to the Haarlem archives, a [[Meagre Company|schutterstuk]] that Hals started in Amsterdam was finished by [[Pieter Codde]] because Hals refused to paint in Amsterdam, insisting that the militiamen come to Haarlem to sit for their portraits. For this reason, we can be sure that all sitters were either from Haarlem or were visiting Haarlem when they had their portraits made.

Hals's work was in demand through much of his life, but he lived so long that he eventually went out of style as a painter and experienced financial difficulties. In addition to his painting, he worked as a [[art restoration|restorer]], art dealer, and art tax expert for the city councilors. His creditors took him to court several times, and he sold his belongings to settle his debt with a baker in 1652. The inventory of the property seized mentions only three [[mattress]]es and bolsters, an armoire, a table, and five pictures<ref name=EB1911/> (these were by himself, his sons, van Mander, and [[Maarten van Heemskerck]]).<ref>Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, and P. Biesboer (1989). ''Frans Hals''. Munich: Prestel. p. 406.</ref> Left destitute, he was given an [[Annuity (financial contracts)|annuity]] of 200 florins in 1664 by the municipality.<ref name=EB1911/>

The Dutch nation fought for independence during the [[Eighty Years' War]],<ref name=EB1911/> and Hals was a member of the local [[schutterij]], a military [[guild]]. He included a self-portrait in his [[The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639|1639 painting of the St Joris company]], according to its 19th-century painting frame. (It has not been possible to confirm this.) It was not common for ordinary members to be painted, as that privilege was reserved for the officers. Hals painted the company three times. He was also a member of a local [[chamber of rhetoric]], and in 1644 he became chairman of the Guild of St Luke.

Frans Hals died in Haarlem in 1666 and was buried in the [[Grote Kerk, Haarlem|Grote Kerk]] church.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Artist Info|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1369.html#:~:text=Hals%20died%20in%20Haarlem%20on,Vinne%20(1628%E2%80%931702).|access-date=1 September 2020|website=www.nga.gov|archive-date=5 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205062844/https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1369.html#:~:text=Hals%20died%20in%20Haarlem%20on,Vinne%20(1628%E2%80%931702).|url-status=live}}</ref>  He had been receiving a city pension, which was highly unusual and a sign of the esteem with which he was regarded. After his death, his widow applied for aid and was admitted to the local almshouse, where she later died.

==Artistic career==
[[File:Frans Hals, De magere compagnie.jpg|thumb|350px|Frans Hals, later finished by [[Pieter Codde]]. ''[[Meagre Company|De Magere Compagnie]]''. 1637. Oil on canvas, 209 x 429&nbsp;cm, [[Rijksmuseum Amsterdam]]]]
Hals is best known for his portraits, mainly of wealthy citizens such as [[Pieter van den Broecke]] and [[Isaac Massa]], whom he painted three times. He also painted large group portraits for [[Haarlem schutterij|local civic guards]] and for the regents of local hospitals. He was a [[Dutch Golden Age]] painter who practiced an intimate [[realism (arts)|realism]] with a radically free approach. His pictures illustrate the various strata of society: banquets or meetings of officers, guildsmen,<ref name=EB1911/> local councilmen from mayors to clerks, itinerant players and singers, gentlemen, fishwives, and tavern heroes. In his group portraits, such as ''[[The Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1627]]'', Hals captures each character in a different manner. The faces are not idealized and are clearly distinguishable, with their personalities revealed in a variety of poses and facial expressions.

Hals was fond of daylight and silvery sheen, while Rembrandt used golden glow effects based upon artificial contrasts of low light in immeasurable gloom. Hals seized a moment in the life of his subjects with rare intuition. What nature displayed in that moment he reproduced thoroughly in a delicate scale of color and with mastery over every form of expression. He became so clever that exact tone, light and shade, and modeling were obtained with a few marked and fluid strokes of the brush.<ref name=EB1911/> He became a popular portrait painter and painted the wealthy of Haarlem on special occasions. He won many commissions for wedding portraits (the husband is traditionally situated on the left, and the wife situated on the right). His double portrait of the newly married Olycans hang side by side in the [[Mauritshuis]], but many of his wedding portrait pairs have since been split up and are rarely seen together.

==Wedding portraits==
{{main|Marriage pendant portraits by Frans Hals}}
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:Frans Hals - Portrait of Jacob Olycan - Mauritshuis 459.jpg|Portrait of [[Jacob Pietersz Olycan]] (1596–1638), 1625, Mauritshuis.
File:Frans Hals - Portrait of Aletta Hanemans - Mauritshuis 460.jpg|Portrait of [[Aletta Hanemans]] (1606–1653), bride of Jacob Olycan, 1625, Mauritshuis.
File:Frans Hals - Paulus Beresteyn, rechter te Haarlem.jpg|[[Paulus van Beresteyn]], 1629, [[Louvre]].
File:Paulus van Beresteyns vrouw Catharina Both van der Eem.jpg|[[Catharina Both van der Eem]], bride of Paulus Beresteyn, 1629, [[Louvre]].
File:Frans Hals 1644 Portrait of Joseph Coymans.jpg|[[Joseph Coymans]] (1591–1660), the husband of Dorothea Berck, 1644, [[Wadsworth Atheneum]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Biesboer |first=Pieter |title=Willem or Balthasar? The Portrait of a Member of the Coymans Family by Frans Hals Reconsidered |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=82–91 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.9 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref>
File:Dorothea Berck door Frans Hals in 1644.jpg|[[Portrait of Dorothea Berck|Dorothea Berck]] (1593–1684), wife of Joseph Coymans, 1644, Private Collection.
File:Frans Hals 038.jpg|[[Portrait of Stephan Geraedts, husband of Isabella Coymans]], 1652, [[Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp]].
File:Frans Hals - Portrait d'Isabella Coymans.jpg|[[Isabella Coymans]], wife of Stephan Geraedts, 1652, Private Collection.
</gallery>

The only record of his work in the first decade of his independent activity is an engraving by [[Jan van de Velde]] copied from the lost portrait of ''The Minister Johannes Bogardus''. Early works by Hals show him as a careful draughtsman capable of great finish yet spirited, such as ''[[Two singing boys with a lute and a music book]]'' and ''Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia'' (1616). The flesh that he painted is pastose and burnished, less clear than it subsequently became. Later, he became more effective, displayed more freedom of hand and a greater command of effect.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[File:Frans Hals - Luitspelende nar.jpg|thumb|''[[The Lute Player (Hals)|Jester with a Lute]]'', 1620–1625, canvas, [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.]]
During this period, he painted the full-length portrait of [[Catharina Both van der Eem|Madame van Beresteyn]] ([[Louvre]]) and a full-length portrait of [[Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword|Willem van Heythuysen posing with a sword]]. Both these pictures are equalled by the other ''Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia'' (with different portraits) and the ''[[The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627|same militia in 1627]]'' and ''[[The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633|Banquet of the Officers of the St Hadrian Militia]]'' of 1633. [[The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639|A similar painting]] with the date of 1639 suggests some study of Rembrandt masterpieces, and a similar influence is apparent in a [[:File:Frans Hals 018.jpg|group portrait of 1641]] representing the regents of the [[St. Elisabeth Gasthuis, Haarlem|St Elisabeth Gasthuis]] and in his 1639 portrait of [[:File:Frans Hals 027.jpg|Maria Voogt]] at Amsterdam.<ref name=EB1911/>

From 1620 till 1640, he painted many double portraits of married couples on separate panels, the man on the left panel and his wife on the right panel. Only once did Hals portray a couple on a single canvas: ''[[Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen|Couple in a garden: Wedding portrait of Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa and Beatrix van der Laan]]'', ({{circa|lk=no|1622}}, [[Rijksmuseum]] [[Amsterdam]]).<ref name=Bezold>[https://oudholland.rkd.nl/index.php/reviews/44-review-of-frans-hals-portraits-a-family-reunion 'Review of: Frans Hals portraits: A family reunion', Oud Holland Reviews, December 2020.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422031401/https://oudholland.rkd.nl/index.php/reviews/44-review-of-frans-hals-portraits-a-family-reunion |date=22 April 2021 }} Review of exhibition publication.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Signature Style of Frans Hals Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity |author1-first=Christopher DM. |author1-last=Atkins |year=2012 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=9789048514595 |page=128 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hkhAwAAQBAJ |access-date=11 August 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926152653/https://www.google.de/books/edition/The_signature_style_of_Frans_Hals/5hkhAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}</ref>

His style changed throughout his life. Paintings of vivid color were gradually replaced by pieces where mostly black came to dominate. This was probably due to the sober dress of his Protestant sitters, more than any personal preference. One simple way to observe this change is to look at all of the portraits that he painted through the years with his trademark pose leaning over the back of a chair:
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:Portrait of Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa by Frans Hals.png|1626
File:Frans Hals - Oficial Sentado.jpg|1631
File:Frans Hals 037.jpg|1633
<!-- :Image:Willem Heythuijsen by Frans Hals 1634.jpg|1634 -->
File:Frans Hals 035.jpg|1635
File:Frans Hals, Willem Coymans, 1645.jpg|1645
File:Frans Hals 066.jpg|1645
File:Frans Hals - Frans Post (Worcester Art Museum).jpg|1655
File:Frans Hals 068.jpg|1665
</gallery>

==Portrait painter==
[[File:Willem Heythuijsen by Frans Hals 1634.jpg|thumbnail|Willem van Heythuysen by Frans Hals (1634, one of two portraits of Van Heythuysen attributed to Hals).]]  
Later in his life, his brush strokes became looser, fine detail becoming less important than the overall impression.<ref>{{Citation |last=Rikken |first=Marrigje |title=Foreword |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=7–8 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.3 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> His earlier pieces radiated gaiety and liveliness, while his later portraits emphasized the stature and dignity of the people portrayed. This austerity is displayed in ''[[:File:Frans Hals - Regents of the St Elizabeth Hospital of Haarlem - WGA11139.jpg|Regents of the St Elizabeth Hospital]]'' in 1641 and,<ref>{{Citation |last=van Putten |first=Herman |title=Lost Lines: New Light on the Painting Technique of Frans Hals |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=171–182 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.14 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |last2=Abraham |first2=Liesbeth |last3=te Marvelde |first3=Mireille |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> two decades later, ''[[Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse|The Regents]]'' and ''[[Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse]]'' ({{circa|lk=no|1664}}), which are masterpieces of color, though in substance all but monochromes.<ref>{{Citation |last=Abraham |first=Liesbeth |title=More than Decoration: The Map in Frans Hals’s Regents of St Elisabeth’s Hospital |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=65–81 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.8 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |last2=Levy-van Halm |first2=Koos |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Abraham |first=Liesbeth |title=Unfinished Business? Comparing Hals’s Late Regents and Regentesses |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=183–192 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.15 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> His restricted palette is particularly noticeable in his flesh tints, which became greyer from year to year, until finally the shadows were painted in almost absolute black, as in the ''[[:File:Frans Hals 116 WGA version.jpg|Tymane Oosdorp]]''.<ref name=EB1911/>

This tendency coincides with the period when Hals gained fewer commissions from the wealthy, and some historians have suggested that a reason for his predilection for black and white pigment was the low price of these colors as compared with the costly lakes and carmines.<ref name=EB1911/> Both conclusions are probably correct, however, because Hals did not travel to his sitters, unlike his contemporaries, but let them come to him. This was good for business because he was exceptionally quick and efficient in his own well-fitted studio, but it was bad for business when Haarlem fell on hard times.
[[File:Portrait of a Gentleman by Frans Hals.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of a Gentleman'', circa 1630; private collection]]
As a portrait painter, Hals had scarcely the psychological insight of a [[Rembrandt]] or [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]], though in a few works, like the ''Admiral de Ruyter'', the ''[[Jacob Pietersz Olycan|Jacob Olycan]]'', and the ''Albert van der Meer'' paintings, he reveals a searching analysis of character which has little in common with the instantaneous expression of his character portraits. In these, he generally sets upon the canvas the fleeting aspect of the various stages of merriment, from the subtle, half ironic smile that quivers round the lips of the curiously misnamed ''[[Laughing Cavalier]]'' to the grin of the ''[[Malle Babbe]]''.<ref>{{Citation |last=Tummers |first=Anna |title=The New York Malle Babbe: Original, Studio Work, or Forgery? |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=130–154 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.12 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |last2=Wallert |first2=Arie |last3=Erdmann |first3=Robert G. |last4=Kleinert |first4=Katja |last5=Hartwieg |first5=Babette |last6=Mahon |first6=Dorothy |last7=Centeno |first7=Silvia |last8=Groves |first8=Roger |last9=Anisimov |first9=Andrei |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Franken |first=Michiel |title=‘Because you simply cannot argue about art with a chemist’: Scientific Research on Frans Hals’s Paintings in the Netherlands during the 1920s |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=211–220 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.17?seq=2 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> To this group of pictures belong the ''[[The Lute Player (Hals)|Lute Player]]'', the ''[[The Gypsy Girl (Hals)|Gypsy Girl]]'' and the ''[[Laughing Fisherboy]]'', whilst the ''[[Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen]]'' and the somewhat confused group of the ''[[:File:Beresteyn-van der Eem family ca1635.JPG|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 Hals's achievements is the group called ''[[:File:Family Group in a Landscape 2.jpg|The Painter and his Family]]'', which was almost unknown until it appeared at the winter exhibition at the [[Royal Academy]] in 1906.<ref name=EB1911/>

According to the [[Frans Hals catalogue raisonné, 1974]], 222 known paintings can be ascribed to Hals. This list was compiled by [[Seymour Slive]] in 1970−1974 who also wrote an exhibition catalogue in 1989 and produced an update to his catalogue raisonné work in 2014. In 1989, another authority on Hals, [[Claus Grimm]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Grimm |first=Claus |title=Looking at Frans Hals in the Digital Age: The Benefits of Detailed Comparisons |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=155–170 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.13 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> disagreed with Slive and published a shorter ''œuvre'' of 145 paintings in his ''[[Frans Hals catalogue raisonné, 1989|Frans Hals. Das Gesamtwerk]]''.

It is not known whether Hals ever painted landscapes, still lifes or narrative pieces, but it is unlikely. His debut for Haarlem society in 1616 with his large group portrait for the St George militia shows all three disciplines, but if that painting was his signboard for future commissions, it seems he was subsequently only hired for portraits. Many artists in the 17th century in Holland opted to specialise, and Hals also appears to have been a pure portrait specialist.

==Painting technique==

[[File:Frans Hals 008.jpg|thumb|left|Frans Hals. [[The Gypsy Girl (Hals)| ''The Gypsy Girl'']]. 1628–30. Oil on wood, 58 x 52&nbsp;cm. [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.]]
Hals was a master of a technique that utilized something previously seen as a flaw in painting, the visible brushstroke. The soft curling lines of Hals's brush are always clear upon the surface: "materially just lying there, flat, while conjuring substance and space in the eye."<ref name="Schjeldahl">{{Cite magazine |last1=Schjeldahl |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Schjeldahl |date=8 August 2011 |title=Haarlem Shuffle: The Fast World of Frans Hals |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Condé Nast |pages=74–75 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2011/08/08/110808craw_artworld_schjeldahl |access-date=26 November 2011 |archive-date=28 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928123545/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2011/08/08/110808craw_artworld_schjeldahl |url-status=live }}{{subscription required}}</ref>
In this way his style was similar to Édouard Manet; in fact, Hals was described by author Raymond Cogniat as "the Manet of his day."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cogniat |first=Raymond |title=Seventeenth Century Painting |publisher=The Viking Press |year=1964 |location=New York |pages=26}}</ref> Lively and exciting, the technique can appear "ostensibly slapdash"<ref name=Schjeldahl/> – people often think that Hals 'threw' his works 'in one toss' (''aus einem Guss'') onto the [[canvas]]. This impression is not correct.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frans Hals Biography {{!}} Life, Paintings, Influence on Art {{!}} frans-hals.org|url=https://www.frans-hals.org/biography.html|access-date=28 January 2021|website=www.frans-hals.org|archive-date=6 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206030759/https://www.frans-hals.org/biography.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Hals did occasionally paint without [[underdrawing]]s or [[underpainting]] (''[[alla prima]]''), but most of the works were created in successive layers, as was customary at that time. Sometimes a drawing was made with chalk or paint on top of a grey or pink undercoat, and was then more or less filled in, in stages. It does seem that Hals usually applied his underpainting very loosely: he was a virtuoso from the beginning. This applies, of course, particularly to his genre works and his somewhat later, mature works. Hals displayed tremendous daring, great courage and virtuosity, and had a great capacity to pull back his hands from the canvas, or panel, at the moment of the most telling statement. He didn't 'paint them to death', as many of his contemporaries did, in their great accuracy and diligence whether requested by their clients or not.

In the 17th century his first biographer, Schrevelius wrote: "An unusual manner of painting, all his own, surpassing almost everyone," on Hals's painting methods. For that matter, schematic painting was not Hals's own idea (the approach already existed in 16th century Italy), and Hals was probably inspired by Flemish contemporaries, [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] and [[Van Dyck]], in his painting method. Haarlem resident [[Theodorus Schrevelius]] was struck by the vitality of Hals's portraits which reflected 'such power and life' that the painter 'seems to challenge nature with his brush'.

==Influence==
[[File:Cavalier soldier Hals-1624x.jpg|thumb|''[[Laughing Cavalier]]'', 1624, canvas, relined, (H) 83&nbsp;cm x (W) 67&nbsp;cm, [[Wallace Collection]], London.]]
[[File:Frans Hals - Boy with a Lute - The Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|''Boy with a lute'' {{circa|lk=no|1625}} [[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]]
Frans influenced his brother [[Dirck Hals]] (born at [[Haarlem]], 1591–1656), who was also a painter.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Hals, Frans |volume= 12 |last= Konody |first= Paul George |author-link= Paul George Konody | pages = 865&ndash;867; see page 867, last para |quote= Quite in another form, and with much of the freedom of the elder Hals, Dirk Hals, his brother (born at Haarlem, died 1656), is a painter of festivals and ball-rooms...}}</ref> Additionally, five of his sons became painters:
*[[Harmen Hals]] (1611–1669)
*[[Frans Hals the Younger]] (1618–1669)
*[[Jan Hals]] (1620–1654)
*[[Reynier Hals]] (1627–1672)
*[[Nicolaes Hals]] (1628–1686)

Though most of his sons became portrait painters, some of them took up still-life painting or architectural studies and landscapes. Still lifes formerly attributed to his son Frans II have since been re-attributed to other painters, however.<ref name=RKD/><ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Hals, Frans |volume= 12 |last= Konody |first= Paul George |author-link= Paul George Konody | pages = 865&ndash;867; see page 867, last but one para |quote= Of the master’s numerous family none has left a name except Frans Hals the Younger, born about 1622, who died in 1669. His pictures represent cottages and poultry...}}</ref> Hals painted a young woman reaching into a basket in a still life market scene by [[Claes van Heussen]].<ref>[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/198313 Young woman with a display of fruit and vegetables] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180914203223/https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/198313 |date=14 September 2018 }} in the [[RKD]]</ref>

Other contemporary painters who took inspiration from Hals were,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Malerei: Frans Hals Ausstellung – Der Maler des lachenden Menschen - WELT |url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/kunst/article252408536/Malerei-Frans-Hals-Ausstellung-Der-Maler-des-lachenden-Menschen.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=DIE WELT |language=de}}</ref> with the main cities they were based in:
*[[Jan Miense Molenaer]] (1609–1668), Haarlem and Amsterdam
*[[Judith Leyster]] (wife of Molenaer, 1609–1660), Haarlem and Amsterdam
*[[Adriaen van Ostade]] (1610–1685), Haarlem
*[[Adriaen Brouwer]] (1605–1638), mostly Antwerp
*[[Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck]] (1597–1662), Haarlem
*[[Bartholomeus van der Helst]] (1613–1670), Amsterdam
*[[Cornelis de Bie (1621–1664)]], Amsterdam

Hals had a large workshop in Haarlem and many students, though 19th century biographers questioned some of his pupils, since their painting styles were so dissimilar to Hals. In his ''De Groote Schouburgh'' (1718–21), [[Arnold Houbraken]] mentions [[Philips Wouwerman]], [[Adriaen Brouwer]], [[Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten]], [[Adriaen van Ostade]] and [[Dirck van Delen]] as students. [[Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne]] was also a student, according to his diary with notes left by his son Laurens Vincentsz van der Vinne.<ref>{{Citation |last=Middelkoop |first=Norbert E. |title=Frans Hals’s Portraits of Painters: A Reconnaissance |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=92–108 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.10 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> Roestraten was not only a student (the Haarlem archives contain a notarised document, which supports this fact), but he also became a son-in-law of Hals when he married his daughter Adriaentje. The Haarlem portrait painter, [[Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck|Johannes Verspronck]], one of about 10 competing portraitists in Haarlem at the time, possibly studied for some time with Hals.

In terms of style, the closest to Hals's work is the handful of paintings that are ascribed to [[Judith Leyster]], which she often signed. She also 'qualifies' as a possible student, as does her husband, the painter [[Jan Miense Molenaer]].

In the 19th century, his technique influenced the work of [[impressionists]] and [[Realism (art)|realists]] including [[Claude Monet]], [[Édouard Manet]], [[Charles-François Daubigny]], [[Max Liebermann]], [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler]], [[Gustave Courbet]], and in the Netherlands, [[Jacobus van Looy]] and [[Isaac Israëls]]. [[Lovis Corinth]] named Hals as his biggest influence.<ref>Lovis Corinth A Feast of Painting, p17, Prestel, Vienna, 2009 {{ISBN|978-3-901508-64-6}}. {{ISBN|978-3-7913-4378-5}}</ref>

The [[Post-Impressionist]] artist [[Vincent van Gogh]] wrote to his brother Theo: 'What a joy it is to see a Frans Hals, how different it is from the paintings – so many of them – where everything is carefully smoothed out in the same manner.' Hals chose not to give a smooth finish to his painting, as most of his contemporaries did, but mimicked the vitality of his subject by using smears, lines, spots, large patches of color and hardly any details.

==Legacy==
[[File:Frans Hals - Malle Babbe - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Malle Babbe]]'', {{circa|lk=no|1630}}. Oil on canvas, 75&nbsp;cm by 64&nbsp;cm. Staatliche Museen, Berlin.]]
The [[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica|1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'']] has an article on Frans Hals by [[Paul George Konody]], who observes: Hals's reputation waned after his death and for two centuries he was held in such poor esteem that some of his paintings, which are now among the proudest possessions of public galleries, were sold at auction for a few pounds or even shillings. The portrait of [[Johannes Acronius]] realized five shillings at the [[Enschede]] sale in 1786. The [[:File:Frans Hals 042.jpg|''Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen'']] at the [[Alte Pinakothek]] sold in 1800 for £4: 5s<ref name=EB1911/> (£4.25 in decimal notation).

Nevertheless, Hals's art did not go altogether unappreciated in the time between his death in 1666 and the 1860s. In his ''[[The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters|Groote Schouburgh]]'' (1718–1721), [[Arnold Houbraken]] recorded Hals's life and praised his style, adding that the figures in one of the large group portraits: ''... zoo kragtig en natuurlyk geschildert zyn, dat zy de aanschouwers schynen te willen aanspreken'' ("... are painted so powerfully and naturally, they seem to want to talk to us").<ref name=Schouburgh>{{cite book|last= Houbraken|first= Arnold|date= 1718|title= "Frans Hals" ''section in'' De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen|trans-title= The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses|url= https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/houb005groo01_01/houb005groo01_01_0043.php|language= Dutch|publisher= Published by Arnold Houbraken himself|access-date= 2 August 2022|archive-date= 6 May 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220506015200/https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/houb005groo01_01/houb005groo01_01_0043.php|url-status= live}}</ref> Dutch artists known to have admired Hals enough to make copies of his paintings include [[Cornelis van Noorde]] (1731–1795) and [[Wybrand Hendricks]] (1744–1831). Empress [[Catherine the Great]] (reigned 1762–1796) acquired ten Hals works for her collection. [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]] (1732–1806) visited the Alte Pinakothek to copy Hals's work, and Hals's influence is apparent in Fragonard's ''portraits de fantaisie''. [[Antoine Watteau]] (1684–1721) made study sketches after Hals. At the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]] in London, [[Joshua Reynolds]] (1723–1792) lectured on Hals in 1774, praising his handling of faces and the consequent remarkable individuality of his portraits. Reynolds was less enthusiastic about Hals's characteristic loose finish, which he thought betrayed impatience. Subsequently, in 1781 Reynolds visited the Hals collection then at [[City Hall (Haarlem)|Haarlem Town Hall]] (now at the [[Frans Hals Museum]]) and soon after bought two Hals works. Reynolds's biographer [[James Northcote]] (1736–1831), who was a fellow portraitist, remarked that Hals could have caught a bird in flight, grasping it, as it were, from life – something he said Titian would not have been capable of.<ref name=Fenomeen>{{cite book |last=Erftenmeijer |first=Antoon |date= 2014 |title=Het fenomeen Frans Hals |publisher=Frans Hals Museum |location=Haarlem |isbn=97-894-6208-167-3 |pages=148–150}} There is also an English edition: ISBN 978-9462081680, titled ''Frans Hals: A Phenomenon.''</ref>

Starting at the middle of the 1860s his prestige rose again thanks to the efforts of critic [[Théophile Thoré-Bürger]].<ref>Johnson, Paul. ''Art: A New History'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, p. 369</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Bezold |first=John |title=Frans Hals Connoisseurs and Exhibitions: From Thoré to Today |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=221–243 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.18 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> With his rehabilitation in public esteem came the enormous rise in value, and, at the [[Secretan sale]] in 1889, the portrait of [[Pieter van den Broecke]] was bid up to 4,420 francs, while in 1908 the [[National Gallery]] paid £25,000 for the [[:File:Family Group in a Landscape 2.jpg|large family group]] from the collection of Lord Talbot de Malahide.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Hals, Frans|inline=1}}</ref>

Hals's work remains admired, particularly with young painters who can find many lessons about practical technique from his unconcealed brushstrokes.<ref name=Schjeldahl/> Hals's works have found their way to countless cities all over the world and into museum collections. From the late 19th century, they were collected everywhere—from Antwerp to Toronto, and from London to New York. Many of his paintings were then sold to American collectors.

Several of his most important works are owned by the town council of Haarlem. They are now at the [[Frans Hals Museum]] in the Groot Heiligland, Haarlem.<ref>{{Citation |last=Middelkoop |first=Norbert E. |title=Frans Hals: A Survey of Current Research |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=9–12 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.4 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref> Before 1913 they hung in the Town Hall, where [[Impressionists]] went to see them.

The [[Hals (crater)|Hals crater]] on Mercury is named in his honour.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/2334 |title=Hals |publisher=NASA |work=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature |access-date=1 September 2015 |archive-date=27 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327170008/https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/2334 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Hals was pictured on the Netherlands' 10-[[Dutch guilder|guilder]] banknote of 1968.<ref>{{Cite book |title=2013 Standard Catalog of World Paper Money |editor1-first=George S. |editor1-last=Cuhaj |year=2012 |publisher=Krause Publications |isbn=978-1440229565 |page=713 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMxQwXQghgkC&pg=PA713 |access-date=20 July 2013 }}</ref>

''[[The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616]]'' appears on the restaurant wall in the 1989 [[Peter Greenaway]] film ''[[The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-cook-the-thief-his-wife-and-her-lover-112907/ |title=The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover |last=Travers |first=Peter |date=6 April 1990 |website=RollingStone |access-date=27 January 2020 |archive-date=27 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127015603/https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-cook-the-thief-his-wife-and-her-lover-112907/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{clear}}
[[File:Frans Hals 013.jpg|thumb|''[[The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627]]'']]
[[File:Frans Hals 014.jpg|thumb|''[[The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633]]'']]
[[File:Frans Hals - Regents of the St Elizabeth Hospital of Haarlem - WGA11139.jpg|thumb|''Regents of the St Elizabeth Hospital of Haarlem'', 1641]]
<gallery widths="154" heights="188" perrow="4">
File:Frans Hals - Portret van Catharina Hooft en haar min.jpg|''[[Catharina Hooft]] with her Nurse'', {{circa|lk=no}} 1619–1620
File:Family Portrait in a Landscape WGA.jpg|''Family Portrait of [[Gijsbert Claesz van Campen]] in a Landscape'', {{circa|lk=no|1620}}
File:Frans Hals - Three Children with a Goat Cart - WGA11064.jpg|''Three Children with a Goat Cart'', {{circa|lk=no|1620}}
File:Frans Hals - Portrait of a Man - Google Art Project (579097).jpg|''Portrait of a Man'', 1630
File:Hals Frans - Zaffius, Jacobus Hendricksz - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Jacobus Zaffius]]'', 1611
File:Young Man and Woman in an Inn ("Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart") MET DP145899.jpg|''[[Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart]]'', 1623
File:Frans Hals - Portret van een stel in een landschap - Google Art Project.jpg|''Married Couple in a Garden'', 1622
File:Peeckelhaering WGA.jpg|''[[Peeckelhaeringh]],'' {{circa|lk=no}} 1628–1630
File:Frans Hals 003.jpg|''The Mulatto'', 1627
File:Frans Hals - Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull.JPG|''Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull'', {{circa|lk=no|1615}}
File:Young Man with a Skull, Frans Hals, National Gallery, London.jpg|''[[Young Man with a Skull]]'', {{circa|lk=no}} 1626–1628, [[National Gallery]], [[London]]
File:Portrait of a Woman00.jpg|''Portrait of a Woman'', 1644
File:Frans Hals - The Merry Drinker - WGA11095.jpg|''[[The Merry Drinker]]'', {{circa|lk=no}} 1628–1630
File:Frans Hals, Merrymakers at Shrovetide, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|''[[Shrovetide Revellers]]'', {{circa|lk=no|1615}}
File:Frans Hals - St Matthew - Museum of Western European and Oriental Art, Odessa.jpg|''St Matthew'', {{circa|lk=no|1625}}
File:Frans Hals - The Rommel Pot Player - WGA11057.jpg|''[[The Rommel Pot Player]]'', {{circa|lk=no}} 1618–1622
File:Frans Hals 073.jpg|''[[Two Singing Boys with a Lute and a Music Book]]'', {{circa|lk=no|1625}}
File:Frans Hals 031.jpg|''[[Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa]]'', 1626
File:Daniel van Aken (Frans Hals d.ä.) - Nationalmuseum - 18571.tif|''Daniel van Aken''
File:Frans Hals, Portrait of René Descartes (cleaned up).jpg|''Portrait of René Descartes'', {{circa|lk=no|1649}}
File:Hals Portrait of a Man.png|''Portrait of a Man'' (about 1665), [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]] ([https://collections.mfa.org/objects/33984/portrait-of-a-man?ctx=dc6fb20f-97ad-4dcc-9689-02f377a9d6ec&idx=0 66.1054])
</gallery>

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage=[[File:Frans Hals - Singing Boy with Flute - Google Art Project.jpg|210px]]  | video1 = [http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-singing-boy-with-flute.html Hals's Singing Boy with Flute], [[Smarthistory]]<ref name="smarth">{{cite web | title =Hals' Singing Boy with Flute | publisher =[[Smarthistory]] at [[Khan Academy]] | url =http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-singing-boy-with-flute.html | access-date =12 February 2013 | archive-date =4 March 2013 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20130304050553/http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-singing-boy-with-flute.html | url-status =live }}</ref>
| video2 = [http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-malle-babbe.html Hals's Malle Babbe], [[Smarthistory]]<ref name="smarth2">{{cite web | title =Hals's Malle Babbe | publisher =[[Smarthistory]] at [[Khan Academy]] | url =http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-malle-babbe.html | access-date =12 February 2013 | archive-date =4 March 2013 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20130304055945/http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hals-malle-babbe.html | url-status =live }}</ref> }}

==Public collections (selection)==
* [[Frans Hals Museum]], [[Haarlem]]
* [[Frick Collection]], [[New York City]]
* [[Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen]]
* [[Louvre]], [[Paris]]
* [[Mauritshuis]], [[The Hague]]
* [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York
* [[Gemäldegalerie, Berlin|Gemäldegalerie]], [[Berlin]]
* [[Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen]], [[Rotterdam]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://collectie.boijmans.nl/nl?q=frans+hals| title = Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen| access-date = 1 September 2014| archive-date = 26 July 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140726035154/http://collectie.boijmans.nl/nl?q=frans+hals| url-status = live}}</ref>
*[[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Portrait of a Man|url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/33984/portrait-of-a-man;jsessionid=17B9156D65890E0C8D8917137946BA59|access-date=17 December 2020|website=collections.mfa.org|language=en|archive-date=26 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926152654/https://collections.mfa.org/objects/33984/portrait-of-a-man;jsessionid=17B9156D65890E0C8D8917137946BA59|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Rijksmuseum Amsterdam]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search?p=1&ps=12&maker=Frans%20Hals| title = Collection Rijksmuseum| access-date = 1 September 2014| archive-date = 3 September 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140903185058/https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search?p=1&ps=12&maker=Frans%20Hals| url-status = live}}</ref>
* [[Kenwood House]]
* [[Wallace Collection]], [[London]]

==See also==

*[[List of paintings by Frans Hals]]
*[[Han van Meegeren]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{in lang|nl}}<!--Middle Dutch--> [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/houb005groo01_01/houb005groo01_01_0043.php Frans Hals biography] in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by [[Arnold Houbraken]], courtesy of the [[Digital library for Dutch literature]]
*Seymour Slive: ''Frans Hals, 3 Volumes'' ([[:Commons:Frans Hals catalogue raisonné, 1974|oeuvre catalogue]]), New York / London 1970–1974
*''Frans Hals'' ([[:Commons:Frans Hals Exhibition catalog, 1989|exhibition catalogue Washington/London/Haarlem]], 1989.
*Claus Grimm published his ''[[:Commons:Frans Hals catalogue raisonné, 1989|Frans Hals. Das Gesamtwerk]]'' in 1989 (Stuttgart/Zürich; also translated into Dutch and English).
*N. Middelkoop and A. van Grevenstein, Frans Hals. ''Leven, werk, restauratie'' (''Life, work and restorations'') (Haarlem Amsterdam 1988). This work gives an account of restorations of the riflemen's pieces, but it also gives a picture of Hals's life and work.
*Antoon Erftemeijer (2004): ''Frans Hals in het Frans Hals Museum'', Amsterdam/Gent (in Dutch, English and French), in which various chapters are devoted to Hals's life, his predecessors, portrait painting in the Golden Age, Hals's painting technique and other subjects. Many pictures with close-ups in this book show Hals's works in great detail.
*Christopher D. M. Atkins (2003): [https://www.academia.edu/37057126/Frans_Halss_Virtuoso_Brushwork "Frans Hals's Virtuoso Brushwork"], ''Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek'', pp.&nbsp;281–309). Parts of this article are excerpts of ''The Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, July 2005'' by Antoon Erftemeijer, Frans Hals Museum curator.
*Christopher D. M. Atkins (2012): ''The Signature Style of Frans Hals: Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity'', Amsterdam University Press.
* Henry R. Lew (2018): ''Imaging the World'', Hybrid Publishers, Melbourne, Australia Chapter 9: Frans Hals, pages 108–126.
* [[Steven Nadler]] (2022): ''The Portraitist: Frans Hals and His World'', The University of Chicago Press.
* Lelia Packer and Ashok Roy (2022): ''Frans Hals: The Male Portrait'', The [[Wallace Collection]].

==External links==
{{EB1911 poster|Hals, Frans}}
{{commons-inline}}
*{{Art UK bio}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100909213758/http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/home/?language=en Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem]
*[http://www.artble.com/artists/frans_hals Frans Hals Works, Biography and Style]
*[http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/frans-hals The National Gallery]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160126124917/http://www.wallacecollection.org/index.php The Wallace Collection]
*[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/h/hals/frans/02-1626/index.html Web Gallery of Art (large collection of pictures and extensive biography)]
*[http://www.zeno.org/Kunstwerke/A/Hals,+Frans Frans Hals at zeno.org] {{in lang|de}}
*[http://www.abcgallery.com/H/hals/hals.html Olga's Gallery]
*[http://www.pubhist.com/person/2/frans-hals Works and literature on Frans Hals]
*[https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/frans-hals-in-the-metropolitan-museum Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum] 2011 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
* [[Walter Liedtke]], [http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/Frans-Hals.php ''"Frans Hals: Style and Substance"'' (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011)]

{{Frans Hals}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hals, Frans}}
[[Category:Frans Hals| ]]
[[Category:1580s births]]
[[Category:1666 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Flemish painters (before 1830)]]
[[Category:Flemish portrait painters]]
[[Category:Dutch Golden Age painters]]
[[Category:Dutch male painters]]
[[Category:Dutch portrait painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Haarlem]]
[[Category:Sibling artists]]
[[Category:Painters from Antwerp]]
[[Category:Hals family|Frans]]