Frans Hals and His Smiling Subjects

I've mentioned before how a painting can change your mood, and I particularly noted Frans Hals and his ability to be a mood uplifter though his portraits. You can read a little more about him in Have Fun With Art part 1, and part 2. There's something magical about his paintings with their quick brush strokes and vibrant expressions and colors. Even his more serious group portraits are full of life and seem to have captured a moment in time.

Life And Work

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp and lived and painted in the Baroque era in the early to mid seventeenth century. Most of his work includes high society portraits including the rich and powerful such as mayors (burgomasters) and the like, group portraits of militias and soldiers, and my favorite of his subjects singers and theatrical players.

He is known for the use of "timing" in his informal portraits, where a tavern goer is caught the instant he raises a glass, or a lute player in the process of strumming rather than posing. This style was used heavily by the Italian Caravaggio, who preceded Hals by some years.

Very few Hals paintings exist today and little is known about the man or his work early in his life and career. The first known success which put him in the art scene was The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company. This came when he was in his mid thirties, years after he was admitted into the group of artists in the Guild of Saint Luke.

Hals and Rembrandt

He is considered to be second only to Rembrandt in terms of great Dutch painters. While Rembrandt used mellow lighting and worked with chiaroscuro, Hals preferred strong daylight.

There is something to be said about the figures of each of the two Dutch masters. Rembrandt's faces mainly seem idealized and all look alike in many paintings. The people in a Frans Hals painting, whether they be a couple or a large group all have distinguishable faces and personalities.

Lively Brush Strokes and Lively Subjects

Art historians look at Hals' paintings and gather that although the brush strokes look quick, they are probably well planned and thought out. So the vivid and quick appearance is purposeful, while there are no mistakes with the strokes.

Some of his best paintings are the singular random subjects such as the Laughing Cavalier. Clearly not laughing in the pose, one can feel that a laugh may come at any moment, perhaps the very next instant after the moment caught in time that we see. Or the gypsy woman seen above. What could she be smirking at?

Some good ones include The Jolly Toper, Malle Babbe, and Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart.

Look at a whole bunch of Hals paintings, you can't help yourself but smile.