Governors of the Leper Hospital at Haarlem

Like many other cities, Haarlem had a lepers’ hospital, which cared for people with leprosy, plague or other infectious diseases. The Leper Hospital was outside the city because of the danger of infection. Jan de Bray painted the regents and regentesses of this institution in 1667.
After the deaths of Johannes Verspronck in 1662 and Frans Hals in 1666, De Bray became the leading portrait painter in Haarlem. He had already proved himself a worthy successor to the two great masters in 1663, the year he painted the portraits of the regents and regentesses of the Haarlem orphanage. His bold compositions and lively figures obviously appealed to the trustees of the institutions.
The three male trustees of the Leper Hospital are shown seated at a table, engaged in their administrative duties: keeping the books and managing the money. A valuable Indian carpet covers the table.
De Bray created vitality in the scene by making it appear as if the housefather has just come in with a new patient. He hands one of the regents a piece of paper, a certificate of infection that was drawn up by a surgeon and entitled the patient to be admitted to the hospital. The boy’s head is bald and covered in sores, a symptom of his disease. The names of the trustees who were in office in 1667 are known, but it has not been possible to link them to the individual men in the portraits.