RKD STUDIES

Precise observation of the artworks not only confronts us with contributions by particular specialists, but also by less experienced assistants from within Hals’s workshop. In paintings that were previously unequivocally accepted as fully autograph, we are confronted with distinct areas which are part of the original paint layer, yet which are executed hesitantly and display different brushwork. Conversely, the observation of some previously overlooked or critically dismissed pictures reveals excellent areas that display the master’s handwriting. This is true for several works that were formerly assigned to the circle or followers of Frans Hals.

One example is the small-scale portrait sketch Young boy in profile [28], formerly attributed to Hals’s pupil Judith Leyster (1609-1660), due to its uneven overall impression.¹ Nevertheless, the painting displays two different styles of painting: a loose, painterly soft brushwork in the facial area and a draughtsman-like hard execution of the hair, the collar, and the tip of the shoulder. The rendering of the face is more clear and accurate than anything by Leyster, while the rest is neither typical for Hals nor Leyster. This means that a portrait sketch by the master was completed by a different hand to create a saleable artwork. We do not know if this was planned by Hals or whether it took place later. However, it is conceivable that Hals created the delicate facial study and left the completion of the rest of the conventional profile portrait to an assistant. Below the chin line, on the oblique fold of the neck, there is a visible change from Hals’s delicate watercolor-like paint application [29]. A delightful trace of his brush can be observed in the lock of hair below the chin. Children’s hair as painted by Hals himself can be observed in the roundels in Los Angeles [30] and in Schwerin (A1.35) [31], painted slightly earlier. While these areas offer a marvel of flowing lines and evolving light, the execution of the hair in Young boy in profile remains a bland, regular line-up of strokes, scratched into the wet paint with the handle of the brush [32].

There are several surviving copies after the Los Angeles Laughing child, which today is generally accepted as a spirited portrait study by Frans Hals – distinctively recognizable as such by the child’s turn of the head. Yet, on critical inspection, the hesitant execution of the zone below the chin and around the hair becomes apparent. Starting from the blurry smear of the white shirt’s edge, these areas were clearly only added later. How this portrait sketch has come about becomes clear when looking at the copy Laughing child with a soap bubble [33]. Judging from the painterly style, this copy is probably contemporary with its example, and it is not a variant but a quite accurate replica. The hand gesture which is so striking here, in fact shows through very delicately on the right hand edge of the original [34]. This can be interpreted as an overpainting covering an area which later viewers possibly regarded as jarring. We can therefore deduct three subsequent stages of execution for the Los Angeles painting. First, the child’s face was painted by Hals himself. Then, the hands – too small in relation to the face – and the soap bubble were added, probably by a workshop assistant. Finally, another artist later on overpainted these areas, removing the painting’s didactic elements which so accurately explain the original meaning of this kind of portrait-like representations. Those are not about rendering an impression of a particular child, but instead about reminiscing of something universally human – a glimpse of the joy of living and its transitoriness – recalled by the naturalistic observation of a child’s presence. The soap bubble and the motif of Homo bulla were much adopted symbols at the time for human fate and transience. Like symbolic attributes in other paintings of the time, this motif was part of the initial concept of the painting, which was in this case finished by a second hand. Based on observations of other pictures, it is conceivable that while the master himself did not paint this weaker area, he still oversaw its design.²

28
Frans Hals (I) and workshop
Young boy in profile, c. 1634-1637
panel, oil paint, 19 x 19 cm
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of Art, inv.no. 2009.113.1
cat.no. A3.31

29
Detail of fig. 28
Frans Hals (I)
Young boy in profile, c. 1634-1637
Washington (D.C.), National Gallery of Art

30
Frans Hals (I) and workshop
Laughing child, c. 1624-1626
panel, oil paint, 27.9 x 27.9 cm
upper right: FH
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, inv.no. AC1992.152.144
cat.no. A3.6