Frans Hals: 8 works

'Frans Hals was the preeminent portrait painter in Haarlem, the most important artistic center of Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century.'

'Hals painted this little portrait on copper. Copper gives paintings a smooth, enamel-like appearance, but even so Hals's characteristic powerful brushstrokes are evident.'

'The Rommel-Pot Player is one of the earliest paintings to portray convincingly the vivacious and joyful expressions of children, here conveyed with Hals's distinctive brisk brushstrokes.'

'The painting technique is clearly related to that of Frans Hals (1581/85-1666), but the attribution to Frans Hals, first doubted by W.R.'

'The sergeants are allocated a place behind the table; this is the first time that Frans Hals also portrayed non-commissioned officers.'

'Together with Rembrandt, he is rightly considered the most important portraitist of the Dutch Golden Age.'

'The casual poses of his models, the apparently spontaneous, expressive gestures of the men and women portrayed, and his specialty, the fluent, "Impressionist" brushwork that has been much appraised since the second half of the nineteenth century, lent his pictures a freshness and liveliness to which very few of his contemporaries came close.'

'At the time, an admirer described Hals's late portraits as "very rough and bold, nimbly touched and well‐ordered.'