Malle Babbe

Since the first publication of Frans Hals’ Malle Babbe in 1869 by Thoré-Bürger, this painting has earned great admiration and recognition for its outstanding intensity of expression, masterly, sketch-like modelling, and spontaneity.
At an early date, seemingly, it was ensured that the person portrayed would still be identifiable in later generations. This, at least, is suggested by an inscription on the back of the painting, dating probably from the 17th century: “Malle Babbe van Haerlem […] Frans Hals.” It was not until a few years ago that archive research demonstrated that this was Barbara Claes (died 1663), a mentally handicapped, “mad” (malle) woman from Haarlem. In 1646, on account of immoral behaviour, she was taken to the so-called “werkhuis”, a home for mentally ill persons, where she spent 15 years in all. This institution on the edge of town was at one and the same time a madhouse and a poorhouse, a prison for violent persons and a place of correction for anti-social persons. A son and the eldest daughter of Hals were admitted to it, though not until some years after the Berlin work was painted. Frans Hals was probably acquainted with Malle Babbe, as she was a notorious resident of Haarlem, well-known in the town. He painted a likeness that is situated between a naturalistic portrait and a genre picture of a type of person.
The painting shows the life-size figure of Malle Babbe, sitting at a table. With her right hand, she grasps the handle of a pewter mug, its lid open. An owl sits on her left shoulder. Thanks to its complex motifs of contrary movements, the figure seems to have been captured spontaneously, as if in a snapshot. Whereas her chest is oriented to the left towards the background, she seems to have turned her head to the left, just beginning to laugh. Only the pewter mug placed on the table, the sole vertical in a composition dominated by crossing diagonals, lends a stabilizing touch to the picture. The open brushwork, too, which closes to model the face more densely but otherwise leaves the forms in summary delineation, with abruptly placed strokes, contributes to the impression of a spontaneous portrayal of a moment, captured as if by chance.
The owl sitting on Malle Babbe’s shoulder should probably be seen as a symbol of drunkenness, a reference to the contemporary idiom “zoo beschonken als een uil” (as drunk as an owl). As a personification of a similarly deplorable vice, smoking, Malle Babbe was also depicted on Jan Steen’s painting in Berlin As the Old Sing,
So the Young Pipe.
Laughter is the middle of the picture, and is also at its centre artistically. As the “master of laughter”, Frans Hals was able to impart an unprecedented liveliness to his scenes and portraits. He painted several of his figures, usually folksy characters, laughing openly and showing their teeth – a manner of depiction that would have been impossible in Calvinist-dominated Holland for portraits, in consequence of the prevalent rules of behaviour. The intemperate, alcohol-induced laughter of Malle Babbe thus represents a clear violation of the moral beliefs valid at that time, and is conceivable only for the portrayal of social outsiders. By means of his open, impetuous manner of painting, Frans Hals demands that the beholder shrinks back from the picture, and thus gives the socially marginalised, off-putting figure of Malle Babbe her own freedom and autonomy. Katja Kleinert | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019