Interior with Merry Company

Dirck Hals specialised in painting “merry gatherings”. His paintings reveal his familiarity with the work of his brother, Frans Hals, as well as that of Willem Buytewech, from whom he occasionally copied figure motifs. The Berlin composition, colourful and meticulously drawn, acquires a moral undertone from the presence of the little winged altarpiece in the next room. Its motif of Christ’s crucifixion reminds the boisterous company at the table that they should be leading decorous and pious lives.| Prestel Museum Guides - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2017