Frans Hals
Frans Hals (c. 1581/85-1666), the leading painter of Haarlem, developed a style grounded in the Netherlandish love of description and inspired by the Caravaggesque style introduced by artists such as Ter Brugghen. Like Velázquez, he tried to recreate the optical effects of light on the shapes and textures of objects. He painted boldly, with slashing strokes and angular patches of paint. Only when seen at a distance do the colors merge into solid forms over which a flickering light seems to move. In Hals’ hands, this seemingly effortless, loose technique suggests the spontaneity of an infectious joy in life.
Hals painted his group portrait Officers of the Haarlem Militia Company of St. Adrian around 1627. Most artists arranged their sitters in neat rows to depict every face clearly, but Hals’ dynamic composition has turned the group portrait into a lively social event. The composition is based on a strong underlying geometry of diagonal lines – gestures, banners, and sashes – balanced by the stabilizing perpendiculars of table, window, and tall glass. The black suits and hats make the white ruffs and sashes of rose, white, and baby blue even more brilliant.
The company, made up of several guard units, was charged with the military protection of Haarlem. Officers came from the upper middle class and held their commissions for three years, whereas the ordinary guards were tradespeople and craftworkers. Each company was organized like a guild, traditionally under the patronage of a saint. The company functioned mainly as a fraternal order, holding archery competitions, taking part in city processions, and originally maintaining an altar in the local church.[1]
Hals’ mature style is seen in The Jolly Toper, which perhaps represents an allegory of Taste, one of the Five Senses, among the most popular themes in the seventeenth century. The painting combines Rubens’ robustness with a focus on the “dramatic moment” that must be derived from Caravaggesque painters in Utrecht. Everything here conveys complete spontaneity: the twinkling eyes and half-open mouth, the raised hand, the teetering wine-glass, and – most important of all – the quick way of setting down the forms. Hals worked in dashing brushstrokes, each so clearly visible that we can almost count the total number of “touches.” With this open, split-second technique, the competed picture has the immediacy of a sketch. The impression of a race against time is, of course, deceptive. Hals spent hours on this life-size canvas, but he maintains the illusion of having done it all in the wink of an eye.[2]
