Frans Hals(Antwerp 1582/83 – 1666 Haarlem)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Frans Hals” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artists/frans-hals/ (archived June 2020).
A PDF of every version of this biography is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp in 1582 or 1583 to Franchois Hals (1542–1610), a cloth dresser fromMechelen, and his second wife, Adriana van Geestenryck (1552–1616), the widow of a tailor.[1] The family
moved to Haarlem shortly after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585. Hals’s brother, Dirck (1591–1656), was born therein 1591 and also became a painter. We have no information regarding Frans’s artistic training. According tothe anonymous biographer of Karel van Mander (1548–1606), Hals trained under him, but Van Mander himself
makes no mention of this in his Schilderboeck of 1604.[2] Hals could have spent some time in Van Mander’sworkshop after the publication of this book, though this seems fairly unlikely considering that from 1603 until
his death in 1606 Van Mander was not living in Haarlem. The first official record of Hals’s presence inHaarlem dates from 1610, when he joined the Guild of Saint Luke.
Except for a brief sojourn in Antwerp in 1616, where he became acquainted with the work of Peter Paul
Rubens (1577–1640), Hals spent his entire life in Haarlem. He married Anneke Harmensdr Abeels(1590–1615), the daughter of a bleacher, around 1610.[3] This union should have gained Hals entry into theruling elite, for Anneke’s godfather and guardian, the wealthy brewer Job Claesz Gijbland (1572–1638), saton the town council. For unknown reasons, however, Gijbland showed little interest in Hals and his family.
When Gijbland had himself portrayed in 1611, he chose the established painter Frans de Grebber(1573–1649) over the still inexperienced Hals.[4] That Gijbland also subsequently never supported the couple
is clear from the fact that he did nothing to prevent Anneke from being buried in a pauper’s grave when shedied in May 1615.[5]In 1617 Hals took a second wife, Lysbeth Reyniersdr (1593–after 1675), the daughter of a glassmaker; theywould have eleven children. By this time, his career had taken off and he had been granted a prestigious
commission in 1616 to paint a banquet of the officers of the Saint George Civic Guard.[6] Without diminishing© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Frans Hals
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his success, it should be noted that Hals faced little competition in these early years. The only other portraitistof significance in Haarlem, besides Hals and Frans de Grebber, was Cornelis Engelsz (1574/75–1650).
The tense political situation at that time impelled Prince Maurits (1567–1625) to dissolve the Haarlem town
council in 1618 and then reinstate it with his own supporters. Hals rapidly emerged as the leading portraitist ofthese new leaders and their families. His greatest patron was the affluent and highly influential Olycan familyof brewers, at least fourteen members of which he portrayed. Various members of the Coymans family also
sat for him. The most famous of these works may be the bewitching portrait of Isabella Coymans, the daughterof the wealthy merchant Josephus Coymans.[7] The lifelikeness of Hals’s portraits was as highly praised andappreciated in his own time as it is today. In his 1628 city chronicle, Samuel Ampzing (1590–1632) exclaimed,“How dashingly Frans paints people from life!”[8] Twenty years later, in 1648, Theodorus Schrevelius(1572–1649), writing about Hals’s portraits, would likewise extol how they “are colored in such a way thatthey seem to live and breathe.”[9]Hals’s clients came not only from social and political elite, but also from other echelons of society. He
portrayed various clergymen, including the Dutch Lutheran minister Conradus Viëtor in 1644 (Portrait ofConradus Viëtor in The Leiden Collection),[10] and—in small format—the city chroniclers Ampzing (Portrait ofSamuel Ampzing in the Leiden Collection) and Schrevelius.[11] The scholar Petrus Scriverius (1576–1660) andthe celebrated French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) also sat for him, the latter around 1649
shortly before his departure to Sweden.[12] In the meantime, Hals was facing fierce competition not only fromhis contemporary Pieter Soutman (ca. 1580–1657), who returned from an extended sojourn abroad in 1628,
but also from a new generation of portraitists, including the Catholic painters Pieter de Grebber (ca.
1600–52/53), Johannes Verspronck (1606/09–62), and later Jan de Bray (ca. 1627–97). Except for
Verspronck, however, they were not specialists, and judging from the portraits that have come down to us,
their clientele seems to have consisted primarily of fellow Catholics. Hals managed to retain his leading
position, and his distinctive loose and unfinished manner of painting remained popular among Haarlem
burghers until his death.[13]In addition to having a successful career, Hals was an influential teacher. According to Arnold Houbraken,Adriaen Brouwer (1605/06–38) and Adriaen van Ostade (1610–85) apprenticed with Hals. Although
undocumented, it is believed that Jan Miense Molenaer (ca. 1610–68) and Judith Leyster (1609–60) also
learned the craft of painting from him; in any case, Hals and Leyster were well acquainted.[14] Cornelis de Biefurthermore credits Hals as being the teacher of Philips Wouwerman (1619–68). Less certain is whether
Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne (1628–1702) studied with Hals, who painted his portrait in the late 1650s.[15]Hals’s five sons—Harmen (1611–69), from his first marriage, and the four sons from his second marriage—all
became painters and are assumed to have trained with their father.[16] Pieter van Roestraten (1630–1700),
who married Hals’s daughter Adriaentje (b. 1623) in 1654, studied under Hals as well.
In addition to working for private individuals, Hals received commissions from prestigious institutions. Asidefrom the above-mentioned civic guard painting, between 1616 and 1639 he painted another four group
portraits for both the Saint George Hall and the Calivermen’s Hall in Haarlem. He was a member of the SaintGeorge Militia Company and included his own likeness in his 1639 portrait of the company’s officers and© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Page 3 of 6subalterns.[17] His civic guard paintings gained fame outside of Haarlem as well, and in 1633 the Amsterdam
Crossbowmen’s Hall commissioned Hals to portray the company of Captain Reynier Reael and Lieutenant
Cornelis Blaeuw. This picture, presently better known as Meager Company, however, is only partly by Hals.
After a protracted conflict with his patron, Hals stopped working on it and Pieter Codde (1599–1678) was
asked to finish it.[18] Furthermore, Hals painted group portraits of regents. In 1641 he immortalized the regentsof the Saint Elisabeth’s Hospital[19] (Verspronck had earlier portrayed the regentesses) and, in 1664, two years
before his death, Hals produced group portraits of both the regents and the regentesses of the Old Men’sHome, paintings that are now considered highlights of his oeuvre.[20]Although Hals never wanted for commissions and was probably well paid for his work, he regularly appeared
before the Court of Petty Sessions for arrears in payment. These cases usually involved small amounts,
except in 1654, when he owed a baker 200 guilders. He settled this debt with some objects and five paintings,
including Gathering of the Manna by Maerten van Heemskerck (1498–1575) and Preaching of Saint John theBaptist by Karel van Mander.[21] His exemption from paying his annual contribution to the Guild of Saint Lukein 1661 was not because of financial difficulties, but rather his advanced age. Yet even then he seems to havebeen in dire straits and had to request assistance from the city. Hals died in 1666 and was buried in the SintBavokerk on 1 September.

- Piet Bakker, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Frans Hals
Page 4 of 6Endnotes

1. Unless otherwise noted, all biographical information on Frans Hals is taken from Irene vanThiel-Stroman, “Frans Franchoisz Hals,” in Painting in Haarlem, 1500–1850: The Collection of
the Frans Hals Museum, ed. Neeltje Köhler (Ghent, 2006), 178–84.
2. Thisanonymousbiography

isincludedinthesecond

editionofVan

Mander’s Schilderboeck of 1618. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “The Frans Hals Documents:
Written and Printed Sources, 1582–1679,” Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National
Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London,1989), 379, doc. 25. Van Mander is also called Hals’s teacher in a New Year’s greeting by
the guild servant addressed to the board and members of the Guild of Saint Luke. Hessel
Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lucasgilde te Haarlem (Alphen aan den Rijn,1980), 1: 309.
3. Of their three children, only Harmen Hals (1611–69), who would become a painter, reachedadulthood.
4. Portrait of Job Claesz Gijbland, signed and dated 1611 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem).
5. Pieter Biesboer, “The Burghers of Haarlem and Their Portrait Painters,” Frans Hals (Exh. cat.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans
Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 26.
6. Banquet of the Officers of the Saint George Civic Guard, 1616 (Frans Hals Museum,Haarlem); Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 5–7, no. 7.
7. Portrait of Isabella Coymans, ca. 1650–52 (Private Collection); Seymour Slive, Frans Hals
(New York, 1974), 3: 98–99, no. 189; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum)(London, 1989), 323, no. 69. The pendant of her husband Stephanus Geraerdts is inAntwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York,1974), 3: 97–98, no. 188; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National
Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London,1989), 322–23, no. 68.
8. “Hoe wacker schilderd Frans de luyden naer het leven!” Samuel Ampzing, Beschrijvinge ende
lof der stad Haerlem in Holland (Haarlem, 1628), 371.
9. “[D]ie soo ghecolereert zijn, dat se schijnen asem van haer te geven, ende te leven.”
Theodorus Schrevelius, Harlemias (Haarlem, 1648), 383.
10. Portrait of Conradus Viëtor, 1644 (The Leiden Collection, New York); see the entry in thiscatalogue. See also Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 77–78, no. 152. For
other examples of portraits of ministers, see Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. Cat.,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans
Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 348–49, no. 79.
11. Portrait of Samuel Ampzing, 1630 (The Leiden Collection, New York); see the entry in thiscatalogue. See also Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 46, no. 76; SeymourSlive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal
Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 246–47, no. 40. Portrait of
Theodorus Schrevelius, 1617 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem); Seymour Slive, Frans Hals
(New York, 1974), 3: 7, no. 8; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum)(London, 1989), 141–43, no. 5.
12. Portrait of Petrus Scriverius, 1626 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); SeymourSlive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 22–23, no. 36. Portrait of René Descartes, ca. 1649
(Statens Museum, Copenhagen); Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3:89–91, no.
175; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London,
Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 314–16, no. 66.
13. Pieter Biesboer, “The Burghers of Haarlem and Their Portrait Painters,” Frans Hals (Exh. cat.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, FransHals Museum) (London, 1989), 32–36.
14. In 1635 Judith Leyster quarreled with Frans Hals about a pupil who had left her to apprenticewith Hals, in conflict with guild regulations. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “The Frans Hals
Documents: Written and Printed Sources, 1582–1679,” in Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington,D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum)(London, 1989), 388–89, doc. 71. Relations between the two artists must have been goodnevertheless, for when Leyster’s husband, Jan Miense Molenaer, died, portraits of bothspouses by Hals were listed in the estate inventory.
15. Portrait of Vincent Laurens van de Vinne, late 1650s (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto);
Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: no. 203; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh.
cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem,Frans Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 340–43, no. 76.
16. These are Frans Hals the Younger (1618–before 1678); Jan Hals (ca. 1620–before 1655);
Reynier Hals (1627–71); and Nicolaes Hals (1628–86).
17. Officers and Sub-Alterns of the Saint George Civic Guard, ca. 1639 (Frans Hals Museum,Haarlem); Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 166–67, no. 124. Hals is thesecond man on the stairs at the left.
18. On this conflict, see: Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “The Frans Hals Documents: Written andPrinted Sources, 1582–1679,” Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery ofArt; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 389–91,© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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docs. 73–75, 78. According to Dudok van Heel, Hals must have received this commission
through Uylenburg and painted it in the latter’s workshop in Amsterdam, where it remained
unfinished after Rembrandt’s departure. S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, “De jonge Rembrandt
onder tijdgenoten” (PhD diss., Radbout Universiteit, Nijmegen, 2006), 116n182. Dudok vanHeel, who gave a brief talk on this commission at the invitation of Alfred Bader for a gatheringof Rembrandt experts in England in 2011, is writing an article on this intriguing matter, which
seems to imply that Hals and Rembrandt were personally acquainted, that will be publishedby the Bader Foundation.
19. The Regents of Saint Elisabeth’s Hospital, 1641 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem); Seymour
Slive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 73–74, no. 140; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans
Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 284–89, no. 54.
20. The Regents of the Old Men’s Home, 1664 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem), and The
Regentesses of the Old Men’s Home, 1664 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem); SeymourSlive, Frans Hals (New York, 1974), 3: 112–13, nos. 221 and 222; Seymour Slive, Frans Hals(Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts;
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 362–69, nos. 85–86.
21. Irene van Thiel-Stroman, “Frans Franchoisz Hals,” in Painting in Haarlem, 1500–1850: The
Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, ed. Neeltje Köhler (Ghent, 2006), 180.

Literature
Ampzing, Samuel. Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland. Haarlem, 1628, 371.
Schrevelius, Theodorus. Harlemias. Haarlem, 1648, 383.
Houbraken,Arnold.

De

grooteschouburgh

derNederlantsche

konstschilders

enschilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1718–21; revised edition published in The Hague, 1753;
reprinted in Amsterdam, 1980.
Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. 3 vols. New York, 1970–74.
Slive, Seymour, ed. Frans Hals. Exh. cat. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; London,
Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum. London, 1989.
Van Thiel-Stroman, Irene. “Frans Franchoisz Hals.” In Painting in Haarlem, 1500–1850: TheCollection of the Frans Hals Museum. Edited by Pieter Beisboer and NeeltjeKöhler, 178–84. Ghent, 2006.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection