RKD STUDIES

Oil on canvas, 115 x 86.1 cm
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, inv.no. NG 691
Pendant to A3.51

This and the following portrait form a pair of striking poignancy, which is the result of the strong colors of the faces in contrast to the overall cool, grey, and black tonality, but also of the solidity of the two angularly modelled figures. The colors, the soft three-dimensionality of the bodies and especially the brightness in the faces set these two pictures apart from all other portraits painted by Hals’s assistants during the 1640s and later. At the same time, individual areas display many divergences from Hals’s own manner of execution. The hand on the hip repeats the gesture in the Portrait of Paulus Verschuur of 1643 (A1.107), while hand with the glove similarly refers back to the Portrait of Adriaen van Ostade (A1.113). In contrast to these examples, the brushwork of the hand – the thumb as well as the contours of the fingers – is clumsily applied in the present picture, which is also the case in the glove and its folds.² There are hard highlights and shadows in the folds of the clothing and cuffs, in the hair and on the beard. The line of the mouth, the lines around the eyes, the nose and the fold of the cheek are sharply drawn as in other works by this assistant of Hals [1]. Yet in contrast to, for example, the faces in the two family portraits (A4.3.19, A4.3.24) and the Portrait of a man in the Liechtenstein Collection (A4.3.42) [2], the illuminated side of the face in the present picture is sensitively and comprehensively modelled. This gives it a particular warmth and closeness. Stylistically, this area is related to the Portrait of a man in Washington (A1.118), but the facial expression in the present picture is not yet developed to the same extent. The raised brows and the wide-open eyes in otherwise unmoved features almost convey a sad or startled impression.

Seifert noted the resemblance of the facial features between the present painting and Hals’s two known portraits of the Haarlem brewery owner, town councilor and mayor François Wouters (1600-1661).³ A stylistic comparison with the portrait of Wouters in the two group paintings of 1639 and 1641 (A2.12, A1.102) is especially revealing. While the sitter to the far right in the Regents of St Elisabeth’s Hospital of 1640-1641 shows the typical brushwork and sparse application of paint by the master Frans Hals, his likeness in the civic guard portrait is rendered more mechanically and the paint application is more viscous – visible today especially in the distracting cracks [3][4]. As outlined in the entry on Officers and sergeants of the St George civic guard, an assistant is likely to have transferred the faces into the composition, on the basis of original sketches by Hals that are lost today.

Wouters was married to Maria de Haen (c. 1601/1602-1644), who is most likely the sitter of the present painting's pendant (A3.51). Following her death in May 1644, Wouters married Susanna Baillij (1627 or 1629 - before 1697), whose year of birth was unknown until recently. Seifert suggested her to be the sitter in the female portrait and supposed that the couple's wedding of 1645 was the occassion for the commission of the two paintings.⁴ However, Biesboer more recently discovered archival documents that testify that Baillij was born in either 1627 or 1629, and thus would have been only 16 or 17 years old at the time her portrait was painted by Hals, an age that seems unlikely when viewing the painting. An age of about 42 seems to be much more appropriate, confirming Biesboer's assumption that the portrait in fact depicts Maria de Haen, Wouters's first wife.⁵

1
Detail of cat.no. A3.50

2
Detail of cat. no. A4.3.42
workshop of Frans Hals (I), possibly Frans Hals (II)
Portrait of an unknown man
canvas, oil paint, 108 x 80 cm
Vaduz/Vienna, The princely collections Liechtenstein, inv.no. GE 235
© LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely collections

3
Detail of cat.no. A2.12
Frans Hals (I) and workshop
Officers and sergeants of the St George civic guard, 1639
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum

4
Detail of cat.no. A1.102
Frans Hals (I)
Regents of St Elisabeth’s Hospital, c. 1640-1641
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum

Oil on canvas, 115 x 85.8 cm
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, inv.no. NG 692
Pendant to A3.50

This woman’s face is depicted more lively than that of her husband. In particular the area of the mouth and nose appear thoroughly modelled. The shadow under the nose, the open round lips, and the shadow under the lower lip, but also the slightly tense lower lids convey a perky movement to her features that cannot be found in other workshop paintings [5]. Other works by assistants lack the boldness of adopting strong visual contrast and the ability to differentiate soft transitions in modelling. In the present painting, the strong facial color also appears strengthened, as if it were the result of a later reworking process. Therefore, the craquelure pattern is of interest, as the cracks indicate overall thicker layers of paint. Were it not for the awareness of the nearly contemporary Portrait of Dorothea Berck (A1.112) with its incredibly delicate juxtaposition of the naked hand and the ivory-colored glove [6], and the Portrait of Isabella Coymans (A1.120) with the areas of the cuffs and collar that are as accurate as they are calligraphic, one might be tempted to attribute the entire picture to the master. However, the hard drawing of the fingers and the anatomically distorted hand in the white glove, the coarsely applied stripes of light and shadow on the bow and the gloves [7], the linear drawing of the collar and cuffs, and the unified execution of the folds in the clothing, as well as the lines of the nose and mouth, all must be attributed to another painter. It must be assumed that Frans Hals designed both paintings of this pair in their outlines and in the design of the faces and passed the remaining execution to his assistants. At the end, he was probably involved in the final detailed modelling of the faces.

5
detail of cat.no. A3.51

6
Detail of cat.no. A1.112
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of Dorothea Berck, 1644
Baltimore Museum of Art
photograph by Mitro Hood

7
Detail of cat.no. A3.51

Oil on canvas, 78.9 x 65.8 cm
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv.no. GG 709

This picture is a difficult to classify case, due to its condition. In older reproductions such as the one in Valentiner 1923, the oval shape that was created in 1720-1728, when the painting was moved to a different stretcher, is still visible.⁷ At the time, a number of paintings had been allocated to rooms in the Vienna Stallburg and were reframed in the process. The preserved areas of the folded canvas could be reintegrated during the 1935 restoration, so that the original size was roughly recovered.⁸ Nevertheless, the painting has suffered from the linings and cleanings. The areas of the face, as well as the fingers and the hair have been mostly abraded. Poor retouchings cover important facial contours. With the reservation that much is no longer preserved, the basic design of face, collar, hands, and gloves seems to have been done by Hals himself. The painterly execution of these areas, however, is soft and flat and lacks the structure of the master’s rhythmical brushwork, while there are also differences in the handling of the hair and the contours in and around the face, as well as the areas of the hands and gloves. Finally, the execution of the folds of the coat and sleeves is mushy and more concerned with rendering three-dimensional shape than structuring the visual impression effectively. The momentary and impulsive character of the observation is missing, which is so striking in Hals’s autograph works.

A3.52
©KHM-Museumsverband

Oil on canvas, 108 x 80 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv.no. MI 927

This distinguished portrait with its aloof facial expression is represented in a position related to a no longer extant companion piece, as is so often the case. I agree with Slive's skepticism towards Valentiner's candidate, the Washington Portrait of a man (A3.57).⁹ The relationship between the two sitters is not conclusive. The posture of the woman is designed clearly; with even her hands modelled in a strikingly confidently manner, creating a soft three-dimensionality. Yet, the gloves and the cuffs remain flat; they are not modelled but rather circumscribed by drawn lines. At the same time, the spatial appearance is imperfect; particularly the gloves pushed into the cuffs appear flawed [8]. The entire costume and the facial features are executed in an angular and hesitant manner [9]. It lacks the soft transitions in tonality which characterize Hals’s faces in the 1640s and 1650s, but which is discernible in the woman’s hand. The dashed, imprecise execution of the face resulted in the same vague expression as that in Jan Hals’s (c. 1620-c. 1654) signed Portrait of a woman in Boston (A4.3.26). Therefore, it seems likely that this son of the painter was involved as an assistant in the present painting.

A3.53
© 2011 RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux

8
detail of cat.no. A3.53
© 2011 RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux

9
detail of cat.no. A3.53
© 2011 RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux

Oil on canvas, 84.5 x 67 cm, monogrammed lower right: FH
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, inv.no. ГЭ-816

This portrait can only be regarded as an autograph work by Hals when it comes to the area of the face and collar, and partially also the white cuff. The man’s hair and, even more so, his black coat are executed in a coarser manner – which becomes particularly well visible when inspecting the dark passages under bright lighting. Similar to the late portrait in the Frick Collection (A3.61), this part could be a contribution by Frans Hals (II) (1618-1669).

Nevertheless, this glamorous portrait holds the promise for an even more glamorous rediscovery. The portly sitter seems to be gravely turning towards the viewer. His face, with a hint of a wan smile, is captured with brushstrokes that are as loose as they are accurate. The accents that shape the facial features run opposite to the diagonally descending lines along the edge of the arm, the cuff, and the collar, and align with those of the rim and the top of the now overpainted hat. The original composition, featuring this elegant crowning of the face with a tall hat and jaunty pompom, is known through a late 17th-century drawing that was made prior to the portrait’s overpainting (D72), and a reversed engraving by Jacob Houbraken (1698-1780), wrongly considered then to be the self-portrait of Frans Hals (C56). The engraving served as an illustration of the famous collection of artists’ biographies by Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719) De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen, published in Amsterdam in 1718-1721. This print is as close to the painting as is the drawing and was therefore probably made directly on the basis of the original painting, providing a terminus post quem for the overpainting. As hats and foreheads in Hals’s paintings have been successfully revealed in the past (A1.101, A1.122, A4.3.55), the return of the hat may be awaited eagerly.¹⁰

The facial features of the sitter in the present painting resemble those in a portrait drawing, supposedly created by, or depicting the painter Nicolaes Berchem (1621-1683) [10]. This drawing, bearing the name Berchem lower right, features a decorative cartouche around the portrait, which was probably created in the 18th century.

A3.53A
Image is used from www.hermitagemuseum.org, courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

10
possibly Nicolaes Berchem
Portrait of a man, posisbly Nicolaes Berchem, in a cartouche with coat of arms and allegorical additions
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-T-1894-A-3010

Oil on canvas, 100 x 75.5 cm, inscribed, dated, and monogrammed upper left: AETA SVAE 45 / AN° 1650 / FH
Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv.no. BMH s662

As Slive already noted, the inscription in white paint in the upper left-hand corner is unusual and differs in style from other secure inscriptions from the Hals workshop.¹¹ Nevertheless, its content is plausible. From 1631 to 1670, Nicolaes van der Steen (1605-1670) – latinized Stenius – was the catholic priest of Akersloot, a village near Haarlem. Following a suggestion made in 1632 by the priest of the catholic Begijnhof church, Jan Albertsz. Ban (c. 1597/1598-1644), Haarlem’s catholic communities began to commission portraits of its priests. In this context, Frans Hals’s 1611 portrait of the catholic provost Jacobus Zaffius (1534-1618), comes to mind (A1.1). It was printed as a larger figure in 1630 in a copper engraving by Jan van de Velde II (1593-1641) (C1). For a catholic community belonging to Haarlem, commissioning Frans Hals would therefore have been an understandable decision.

Stenius’s portrait was in a terrible condition when it was found in a storage room in the Akersloot church in 1878. A restoration in 1915/1916 brought it back to a viewable state. The staging of the sitter as he looks up from his writing, the lively turn of the head towards the viewer and the light modelling of the head and the writing hand are spontaneously impressive and conform to Frans Hals’s characteristic setting of a portrait. It can be concluded that Hals designed the composition in this case and at least laid down the head in the modelling of its highlights. The clarity of the light and dark transition around the eyes is also remarkable. Yet, Hals’s typical brushwork does not appear unequivocally in any other detail. The hair above the ears, the moustache and the beard display the same hesitant stripiness as the 1640 Portrait of a man (A3.35) [11]. In both these pictures, the black clothing is only weakly modelled, and the folds are traced in a sluggish manner. The same is true for the schematically outlined hands and fingers. The present portrait’s hesitant execution overall relates to works by Jan Hals (c. 1620-c. 1654). Nevertheless, the above-mentioned qualities imply preparatory work by his father. This becomes even more imaginable in comparison with the well-preserved copy (A3.54a) that was painted just two years after the damaged original, painted by the Rotterdam artist Ludolf de Jongh (1616-1679).

Even though the restoration has mostly revealed what was preserved in the original, it also added irritating supplements. Especially the area of the neck and collar in the original looks strangely swollen and is bulging out next to the ear. Furthermore, the hair appearing under the rim of the cap and the vertical creases on the forehead had disappeared and were not replaced. Both would add interest to the impression of the facial features, while also making the expression of the face more concentrated and determined.

A3.54
Photo: Ruben de Heer

11
detail of cat.no. A3.54
Photo: Ruben de Heer

Oil on panel, 29 x 23 cm, inscribed, signed, and dated upper left: AEta 47/L.D. Jongh f /A° 1652
Private collection

This copy is a highly important historical document. In a slightly smoother style of painting, it shows how sensitive contemporaries interpreted the special expressiveness, but also the compositional verve of a Hals’s portrait. Furthermore, it documents lost details of the damaged original such as the creases in the forehead and the locks above it.

A3.54a

Oil on canvas, 77.5 x 64.8 cm
Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery, George Eastman Collection of the University of Rochester, inv.no. 1968.101

The painting has suffered from previous cleaning and the paint layers have been pressed together during relining, which particularly affected the area of the hands and gloves. Nevertheless, there is a notable difference between the original execution of the face and the rest. The jaunty composition with the hat at an angle, which is matched by the sitter’s posture and facial expression, is undoubtedly by Hals himself, especially since the face shows his autograph execution in its rhythmical contouring. The supple modelling of the eyes, nose and mouth areas conveys a clear idea of character. The thick streaks of the hair tufts, the coarse fold of the coat, and, as far as still recognizable, the hard contours in the hand area are the work of an assistant.

A3.55
© Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester