RKD STUDIES

Overall, 30 contemporary engravings after modelli by Hals and his workshop have survived. For six of them, including the Jacobus Revius (1586 -1658) portrait (C47), nothing is available which could give an impression in color. A further eight engravings render existing paintings in a larger format, in fairly accurate reproductions. The same applies to the two mezzotints by Wallerant Vaillant (1623–1677) after genre paintings by the workshop (C12, C21). The remaining fourteen engravings are solely portraits, which form a separate group in the oeuvre and have been assessed differently to date. These are representations of which small versions in oil are preserved, mostly in the same size as the printing plates for the engravings. These small portraits on panel were previously regarded in literature as originals by Frans Hals, since the respective engravings were marked F. Hals pinxit and some of them bear the monogram FH. In my view, a detailed inspection cannot ignore three insights. First, all of these paintings are historically considered to be works by Hals. Their physical material and their painterly technique are from the 17th century and place them in the workshop of Frans Hals. Stylistically, they display characteristics which are based on Hals’s style. Yet, for a modern enquiry into authenticity – this is the second point – only a single picture in this group can be considered as an original by Hals’s own hand. The reason is Hals’s brushwork, which can only be identified in this instance. Third, the remaining paintings are either copies after lost models by Hals or they are the original modelli for the engravings, but executed by the workshop. In that case, there must have existed preparatory studies by Hals as a basis, be it on a support since lost, or be it on the support which is now covered with something else.

Let us first consider the abovementioned autograph model and compare it to the engraving of the same size, dated 1638. It is the portrait of the calligrapher Jean de la Chambre (1605/1606-1668), executed on a small panel [197]. The commission to Hals was surely connected to the engraving, which was one of the earliest works by the Haarlem engraver Jonas Suyderhoef (1614 – 1686). The print appeared as a frontispiece for a book published by De la Chambre with six pages displaying examples of his calligraphy [198].¹ Slive noted that all representations of calligraphers depict the sitter as right-handed, as the motif of the right hand with the quill was essential in showing the calligrapher’s skill. This is thus the reason why the engraving of De la Chambre does not reverse the painting’s composition.² The engraver’s virtuosity can be first encountered in a seemingly incidental area, the wide white collar with its folds and lace [199] [200]. As loosely as these are is defined in the painting through fluid brushstrokes, so clearly do they define the surface in the engraving. In comparison, it also becomes clear that part of the thinly applied white lines of paint have become transparent through lead white saponification. In any case, it is noticeable how coherently this fleeting representation is reproduced in the engraving. Hals’s handling of the shiny surface of the black silk sleeve proved a touch more ambitious. He dissolved it into flat lines of slightly varying shades of grey (a reduction in opacity in the white pigment has slightly diminished the brilliance of this area, see the row of buttons on the chest). But the engraver also followed Hals here, taking both this unusual characterization and the materiality of the fabric into account.

199
Detail of fig. 197
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Jean de la Chambre, 1638
London, National Gallery

200
Detail of fig. 198
Jonas Suyderhoef
Portrait of Jean de la Chambre, after 1638
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

201
workshop of Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Petrus Scriverius, 1626
panel, oil paint, 22.2 x 16.5 cm
lower left: FHF
lower right: 1626
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv.no. 29.100.8
cat.no. A4.1.4

202
workshop of Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Anna van der Aar, 1626
panel, oil paint, 22.2 x 16.5 cm
lower left: FHF
lower right: 1626
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv.no. 29.100.9
cat.no. A4.1.5

Nevertheless, there are also cases where even the most adept engraver would have struggled. I am referring to the pair of small-scale portraits in New York depicting the Humanist Petrus Scriverius (1576-1660) [201] and his wife Anna van der Aar (1576/1577-1656) [202], which have been persistently defended as autograph creations by Hals. In the case of the male portrait, an engraving was made by Jan van de Velde (1593-1641) [203], which shows the same composition as the painting and is not reversed. Here the same applies as for calligraphers: the writing hand needed to be emphasized in the print as an important characteristic. In case this was not yet clear enough, there is the word ‘scribendo’ to the right of the hand. The sitter, who had latinized his Dutch name Pieter Schrijver (i.e. writer) into Petrus Scriverius, was born in Haarlem in 1576. He had studied in Leiden and was active there as a writer and historian. The engraving with its Latin verses served the purpose of gaining prominence for this ambitious independent scholar in the academic world at the time. A comparison of the engraving with the painting does not lead to the conclusion that the former was derived from the latter. As every practitioner of the graphic arts, but also any specialist in textiles can confirm, it is simply impossible to create such a coherently placed sequence of soft collar folds as in Van de Velde’s print on the basis of such a clumsy imitation which is the flat collar area in the small painting – note the naïve outer contour of the collar with its little white lines! [204] [205] Also, the three-dimensionally plausible engraved ear cannot have been based on the modest model of the painting. The same applies to the clearly carved out facial features in the engraving in comparison with the hesitantly dashed hair, beard, and wrinkles, or the area of the eyes which is marked by uniform lines in the painting. The sitter’s hand – emphasized in its significance for the writer’s profession – and his gloves are modelled clearly in the engraving [206], up to the fingers of the glove, and were certainly characterized strikingly in Hals’s style of painting. In the present painting [207], though, they are rendered in numerous flat, hesitant dashes. In this picture as in its pendant, the melting texture of Hals’s paint, his calligraphic brushwork, and the rhythm of repeated angular lines of color are not present, but their echo is nevertheless felt when viewed together with the engraving.

All these observations are reasons to assume that the production the three artworks – the painted portraits and the print – only incidentally coincided with the couple’s joint 50th birthday. Rather, the main purpose was to create a new portrait engraving for Scriverius in this jubilee year. It would be neither his first portrait nor his last, as we will see later. But on the occasion of this engraving, an assistant was tasked with creating a copy, a ricordo, of the fragile modello. In an equally simplified process, the pendant depicting Anna van der Aar was made. In both cases, Hals created a detailed modello, of which the New York workshop creations with their well-preserved colors provide an idea. This is especially true for the female portrait with its delicate tones.

203
Jan van de Velde (II)
Portrait of Petrus Scriverius (1576-1660), after 1626
Great Britain, private collection The Royal Collection, inv./cat.nr. 670167
© His Majesty King Charles III 2023
cat.no. C9