4 Signatures
In the production of Hals, signatures were the trademark of a workshop, as everywhere at the time. They were not an indication of the work being done only by the master’s own hand, nor were they necessarily added by him personally. Only in the modern era signatures became understood as the artist’s own authenticating mark. Previously, they had been something like a stamp of origin that could also be placed on the reverse, on a pendant picture, or not at all, because – as in the case of Rubens – the accompanying business correspondence may have documented all that was required. Today’s technical analysis can only determine which pigments and binding agents can be found in a signature, whether and how it is connected to the supporting paint layer and whether the craquelure is consistent in structure across both. Only historical circumstances permit an assumption as to who signed. There is as yet no comparative research into those abbreviated signatures that do not offer more than the monogram FH, and little by way of individuality. With one exception (A3.35), all monograms have a ligature between the letters F and H. It remains unclear how the variant FHF came about [1], or the doubled-up FHFH that has been used once (A1.118) [2].1 A singular case is that of the Kassel Peeckelhaering (A1.50), which is signed f.hals. F [3].
The monograms discernible today will certainly include some that were reinforced later and some that were added by another hand – after original inscriptions may have come off during cleaning or when a picture was cut to size. None of the twelve different examples illustrated by Slive can at this point be attributed to a particular hand.2 It is likely that the vast majority of signatures on paintings executed in Hals’s workshop are original in that they were added in situ and approved of, or even added by the master himself. The mere fact that there are so many of them on works of varying quality supports the workshop theory. The extant monograms appear equally in every attribution-category that is employed in this catalogue.
23
Signature of cat.no. A1.15
Frans Hals (I)
Lute player
canvas, oil paint, 70 x 62 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv.no. R.F. 1984-32
© 2018 RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Mathieu Rabeau
2
Signature of cat. no. A1.118
Frans Hals (I)
Portrait of a man
canvas, oil paint, 68 x 55.4 cm
Washington, National Gallery of Art, inv.no. 1937.1.71
3
Signature of cat.no. A1.50
Frans Hals (I)
Peeckelhaering
canvas, oil paint, 75 x 61.5 cm
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv.no. GK 216