Franz Hals
Entre 1580 et 1583 (Anvers) / 1666 (Haarlem)
Although he began by painting a Banquet in the Park (now lost), Frans Hals quickly turned his back on the Dutch plein air painting of his contemporaries Ruysdael, Van Goyen and Hobbema by painting only portraits of groups or isolated figures. Mostly reclining in domestic interiors, the Halsian bon vivants, wealthy merchants but also actors, slaves or prostitutes, sometimes isolate themselves in obscure corners of the park, outside the city of Haarlem, revealing just a few pieces of nature on the extreme edges of the painting. In Haarlem, although accused of leading a dissipated life, the artist knew intimately the joys and sorrows of fatherhood, having married twice and fathered three and then eleven children.
Although he began by painting a Banquet in the Park (now lost), Frans Hals quickly turned his back on the Dutch plein air painting of his contemporaries Ruysdael, Van Goyen and Hobbema by painting only portraits of groups or isolated figures. Mostly reclining in domestic interiors, the Halsian bon vivants, wealthy merchants but also actors, slaves or prostitutes, sometimes isolate themselves in obscure corners of the park, outside the city of Haarlem, revealing just a few pieces of nature on the extreme edges of the painting. In Haarlem, although accused of leading a dissipated life, the artist knew intimately the joys and sorrows of fatherhood, having married twice and fathered three and then eleven children.