3.8 Experiencing the art of Frans Hals
Today, the paintings by Frans Hals are spread across the world. The museums holding his most outstanding achievements are those in Haarlem, Amsterdam, New York, Washington, Paris, Kassel, and Berlin. But impressive examples of his art can also be found in London, São Paolo, Edinburg, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Brussels, St. Petersburg, The Hague, Cologne, Munich and Greifswald, or in Prague, Toledo (Ohio), Toronto, Frankfurt, Stockholm and several more cities. Yet there is one place which gives a particularly deep impression of his observational and expressional abilities, and that is the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven. Here, a small gallery room is dominated by the two three-quarter portraits of an unidentified Dutch couple [138] [149], bequeathed to the museum from the collection of Stephen C. Clark (1882-1960). They still fixate their viewers as suspiciously as they probably did when they sat for Frans Hals. The eeriness of posing for a portrait and being scrutinized by an artist before oneself, conveyed particularly by the male portrait. The man is not making any move towards the viewer; his hands are holding on to the gloves that he just has taken off. In contrast, his wife seems more determined. Her facial expression conveys something along the lines of: ‘Don’t even think about making us appear shabby. Our money did not fall from the sky. We are God-fearing people and thus permit a hungry painter to make a living too.’ As uptight the man’s expression is, as unfathomable is the gaze of his wife [140][141]. Together, they appear as in a brilliantly staged intimate play.
138
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of a man, dated 1643
New Haven (Connecticut), Yale University Art Gallery, inv./cat.nr. 1961.18.23
cat.no. A1.104
139
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of a woman, dated 1643
New Haven (Connecticut), Yale University Art Gallery, inv./cat.nr. 1961.18.24
cat.no. A1.105
140
Detail of fig. 138
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of a man, 143
New Haven, Yale University Art Art Gallery
141
Detail of fig. 139
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of a woman, 143
New Haven, Yale University Art Art Gallery