RKD STUDIES

In order to familiarize ourselves with Frans Hals’s characteristics, we begin with a pair of pendant portraits created by the artist during his mature phase in Amsterdam. By 1634, Hals was busy with a prestigious commission there: the group portrait of the Militia company of district XI (A2.11), which was eventually to be completed in 1637 by Pieter Codde (1599-1678). The two individual portraits that Hals created in the same period, depict the elegant Amsterdam citizens Nicolaes Hasselaer (1593-1635) [1] and his second wife, Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen (1594-1667) [2]. Hasselaer was a wealthy brewer, member of the Dutch delegation to Moscow in 1616, regent of the Amsterdam orphanage, and Captain-Major of the Amsterdam civic guard. The vain finery of this prominently depicted sitter, with his so-called ‘nits nest’ hairstyle, is matched by the equally elaborate dress of his wife.¹ His position, with an authoritative gesture and a spontaneous head movement to the side is captured in an extremely loose style of painting, almost as if Hals had noted it just in passing. The cuffs are depicted through brushstrokes that level off softly, and the curves of the fingers appear to have been applied with a turning of the brush. Both the fabric of the dark costume and the white collar and cuffs are rendered by dabbing and pressing down with a semi-dry brush [3]. The man’s facial features are rendered in a sequence of parallel lines in semi-dry paint as well [4]. The individual characteristics of his physiognomy are outlined only roughly; the modelling of the skin dissolves into a pattern of optical values. Yet, what seems to emerge as if by chance, are the sharply observed qualities of the less characteristics features. The diagonal brushstrokes convey an incomplete impression of the interplay of color and light as in a subjective momentary experience. This suggestive manner of portraying emphasizes on the visual appearance of the sitter and on the transitoriness of this perception, turning him into a dreamily staring representation.

1
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Nicolaes Hasselaer (1593-1635), c. 1634
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-1246
cat.no. A1.62

2
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen (1594-1667), c. 1634
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-1247
cat.no. A1.63

The woman depicted in the pendant is turned slightly towards the viewer. Her pose is more conventional, as is the softer modelling of her face. The transitions between the light and shadow zones in the forehead and cheekbones is marked by subtle strokes of a frayed brush [5]. Apart from the striking black, grey, and brown accents in the shadows, everything is toned down slightly, which gives rise to the assumption that the female portrait had not been conceived from the outset, but was a later addition. The portrait does not dissolve into brushstrokes as decisively as its pendant, which may also have been due to a desire of the patron. Instead, the painter employed his characteristic observation of light gradations and the rhythm of his brushstrokes for the rendering of the sumptuous dress [6]. The brushwork is striking in its seemingly playful mapping of individual visual impressions. The illusion of the fabric’s surface, the spatial quality of the fabric panels, and the openings in the slits are depicted by accurately grading the lighter and darker tones. They do not blend together smoothly, but rather have been applied in separates streaks. At the same time, Hals’s focused capturing of facial features – which can sometimes border on caricature – and of hands in movement are neither accidental nor arbitrary, but based on accurate observation of expression-defining details. This precision differentiates his autograph works from anything which is merely similar or imitated.

We are used to regard Dutch 17th-century painting as ‘realistic’, that is limited to tangible and visible aspects of the world. While subjects from religion or philosophy were represented as well, these were shown in the form of pictured events from biblical history or as stage-set scenes. Yet the depiction of profane motifs grew out of a tradition of representation which was by no means perfunctory, yet directed towards the spiritual. It aspired to instruct and convey deeper insights. This also applied to lower-ranked categories such as genre scenes, portraits, or still-lifes. It is hard to imagine for us how a portrait could be a means of transporting universal insights and transcend the superficial impression of an existing person. Yet the perception during the era of Hals and Rembrandt (c. 1606/1607-1669) was different. While appearances of the sensory world were interpreted as treacherous and transient, there were still metaphysical qualities in our Western culture which for a long time were regarded as visible. Up to the publication of Isaac Newton’s (1643-1727) Opticks in 1704, such were the phenomena of light and of colors produced by light.² All parts of nature were created out of the four elements, and light was the only element that one could see. Rembrandt’s rendering of lighting situations conveyed a light that was regarded as ‘magical’, as was Johannes Vermeer's (1632-1675) systematic observation of the incidence of light by means of the camera obscura.³

Again, Frans Hals registered impressions of the outside world as a sequence of color shades and different levels of brightness. He was interested in the visual impression of phenomena and emphasized this over the trivial perception of surfaces. With this approach, he was able to capture expressive moments, while simultaneously emphasizing their transitoriness. Just how seriously Hals took visual phenomena and how precisely he captured them becomes especially apparent in his late works. Standard human perception is directed towards the identification of objects. Accordingly, painters work with ‘typical’ shades of appearance. We ‘see’ skin tone, brighter when lit and darker in the shadow. But we do not see the red, grey, and black lines in the center of a face in the way Hals used these to render the Portrait of Willem Croes, for instance, in which the rhythmically applied brushstrokes generate an impression of impulsive movement, superimposed over the facial features. (A1.128) [7] [8]. Equally, we notice the bright sclera of the human eye, but we do not register the illumination-induced pure white in one area, and the reduced brightness elsewhere. Such emphasis on visual effects and constellations in a preconscious perception is a particularly developed skill.

5
Detail of fig. 2
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen, c. 1634
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

6
Detail of fig. 2
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen, c. 1634
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

7
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Willem Croes (1608-1666), c. 1662-1664
Munich, Alte Pinakothek, inv./cat.nr. 8402
cat.no. A1.128

8
Detail of fig. 7
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Willem Croes, c. 1662-1664
Munich, Alte Pinakothek