The painting is testament to
Frans Hals's extraordinary
skill of observation.
My name is Bart Cornelis,
I'm the Curator of 'The Credit Suisse:
Frans Hals' exhibition
here at the National Gallery.
And I'm Charlotte Wytema,
Curatorial Fellow here at the Gallery.
And we're here in the first exhibition
devoted to Frans Hals in over 30 years.
And today we are going to take a closer
look at some of the paintings in the show.
This is one of the most famous
paintings in all of 17th-century
Dutch painting.
It's the group portrait of the
St George Civic Guard in Haarlem.
Frans Hals painted five of these militia companies.
I think this is probably the most beautiful
and the most exciting one.
It is also the first time that this picture
has left the city of Haarlem
since it was painted in about 1627.
Frans Hals takes on this
genre of group portraits for militia
companies to have themselves portrayed.
But on the whole they tend to be quite sort of formulaic,
almost like a shooting gallery of portraits.
With Frans Hals, however,
he really manages to create a
dynamic between these people and an energy,
partly through his phenomenal brushwork,
but also in the way he organises the composition.
The most eye-catching figure in this painting is the man
sitting here, in front, tipping his glass upside down.
In this exhbition we've been able
to reunite him with his
portrait that Frans Hals painted as well.
Which, in turn, we have reunited
with the portrait of his wife.
So here he is looking at himself across the room.
And it is a great example of how Frans Hals
manages to imbue life and energy
into these kind of group portraits.
This captivating lute player
is one of Frans Hals's
earliest and most successful
half-length genre paintings.
Hals did not portray a paying client
here, but instead depicted a social type.
And this meant that he was
unrestrained by the requirements of portraiture,
and as such, allowed himself more
freedom regarding composition and technique.
So even though this is not a formal portrait,
it is clear that Frans Hals modeled this
carefree young man after a real person.
And he's wearing a fanciful outfit of black and red stripes,
and these big yellow buttons, so perhaps that of a jester.
And this hint at theatricality raises some questions.
Are we looking at a model in a costume?
Or did Frans Hals take his
inspiration directly from the stage?
And are we looking at an actor or a popular musician?
Or even perhaps a member of a chamber of rhetoric?
Hals himself was a member of such a society.
And it was called the
'De Wijngaertrancken' or 'The Vine Tendrils'.
It was a chamber of rhetoric where they created and
performed poetry, music and plays.
So it's not hard to imagine that Frans Hals might have
got his inspiration for paintings
such as this one from that environment.
Well, whoever this merry man may be, the painting is
testament to Frans Hals's extraordinary
skill of observation.
He combined elements such as the man's sideways glance,
his cheeky smile, his tousled hair,
and his lopsided hat to create
a moment of suspended animation.
And his expressive brushstrokes enhance the painting's
sense of liveliness and spontaneity.
This is one of the most glorious double portraits
painted in 17th-century Netherlands.
It is extraordinary in its informality,
the way husband and
wife are sitting next to each other
in this incredibly relaxed manner.
He is sort of leaning slightly backwards,
she's next to him, leaning her arm on his left arm.
She also has the most amazingly winning smile.
Isaac Massa, I think, is the sitter.
Not everyone necessarily agrees, but I think it is
Isaac Massa and his wife, Beatrix van der Laen.
There's all sorts of symbolism in the
picture that relates to their marriage,
because this picture commemorates their marriage in 1622.
There is the vine that clings
to the tree in the background.
There is the ivy in the sloping ground at lower right,
which are both plants that cling on to something,
and the symbolism of that is quite self-evident
in the context of a marriage portrait.
There's also the thistle in the lower left corner,
and the thistle is a traditional emblem
of faithfulness in love.
In the background, there's a garden of love, a sort of late
Medieval theme that is there to
again denote the same subject.
It's a singular painting within Frans Hals's oeuvre
in that it's the only double portrait that survives.
It may be the only one he ever painted.
The kind of nonchalance that
it exudes is out of this world.
It is as if, all of a sudden, you've come across an actual
couple from the 17th century who are totally
at ease with each other.
'The Laughing Cavalier' is
arguably the most famous
portrait painted by Frans Hals.
And we don't know who the sitter is, but an inscription in
the upper right corner tells us that the man was 26-years-old
when Frans Hals painted him in 1624.
The man is dressed to impress and his clothing reflects the
latest fashion trends from France, something that would
have only been available to the Dutch elite.
These include this expensive lace and a magnificently
embroidered doublet.
They were captured in Frans Hals's
characteristic loose brushstrokes.
His clothing suggests that the man was a bachelor as
married men tended to dress way more soberly at the time.
This portrait really exemplifies Hals's ability to
characterise his sitters incredibly well.
And he captured this man with a striking vitality.
And he enhances this by including vivid
details such as the man's rosy cheeks,
or his enigmatic smile, the twinkle in
his eye, or his very impressive moustache.
The man holds his left arm akimbo and this lends a
tremendous sense of dynamism to the painting.
It appears as if his arm enters the space
of the viewer, so it also adds a sense of depth.
Its catchy title, 'The Laughing Cavalier',
was coined in the 19th century,
but it is in fact inaccurate because this man isn't
laughing, but he's smiling, and he's by no
means dressed as a cavalier.
However, the title became
intertwined with the iconic painting
and it is still the name we give to it today.