Editor’s note
Frans Hals is one of the most important Dutch masters of the 17th century. The Haarlem painter became well known for his striking portraits, colorful genre paintings and large civic guard portraits, but also through the enormous influence he had on 19th- and early 20th-century artists as well as on the development of modern painting in general.
Compared to Rembrandt and Vermeer, Frans Hals has received less attention over the past decades, even though he has been the subject of numerous articles, catalogues, exhibitions and research projects. The first catalogues of his oeuvre were compiled by well-known art historians such as Wilhelm Bode (1883), RKD-founder Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1910) and Wilhelm Valentiner (1921). These works, however, were superseded by the comprehensive catalogue raisonné published by Seymour Slive in 1970-1974. His three-volume catalogue contains a critical analysis of each painting by or associated with Frans Hals, including bibliographical references and provenance information. Many publications about Hals’s work have since seen the light, and just now, a large monographic exhibition on the master has opened in the National Gallery in London. As new possibilities and techniques for art-historical research and technical analysis have also developed since, it has now become time to revise the previous catalogues, according to the author, prof. dr. Claus Grimm.
Over time, the size of Hals’s accepted oeuvre has decreased strongly. In 1910, Hofstede de Groot listed more than 400 works, but this number rapidly reduced in following decades. By 1974, Slive recorded a total of 222 surviving authentic paintings by the master and at least 20 lost pieces, whereas Grimm, in his 1989 monograph, listed only 145. The basis for these attributions was a stylistic analysis which assigned works either to Hals himself or to another master. However, this approach has been abandoned by now, since in many cases close comparison of small details reveals the involvement of multiple hands.
The first part of the RKD Study Frans Hals and his workshop – published in 2023 – comprises three monographic chapters on the life, work and reception of Frans Hals. The author devotes particular attention to his theory on Hals’s workshop practice and the collaboration with other artists. Thanks to new insights gained by technical research, as well as new possibilities for comparing and analyzing works of art in minute detail – using high-resolution digital photographs – Grimm now distinguishes which paintings, or which parts of them, were executed by Hals himself and which were done by studio assistants. A large number of details is reproduced in the publication, providing insight into the author’s arguments for accepting or rejecting specific attributions.
The second part – published in 2024 – is a comprehensive catalogue raisonné of all paintings made by Frans Hals and his studio assistants, including works that are only documented through copies or prints, paintings with less straightforward attributions, and modern imitations. To this end, all artworks that are featured in the catalogue have been included in the database RKD images, together with detailed attribution history, provenance information, and references to technical documentation and literature. This information can be consulted through the RKD databases, and has not been listed again in the catalogue entries. In accordance with the database’s guidelines, the most recently published opinion on an artwork’s attribution – in this case Grimm’s – has been listed first, followed by the opinions of other scholars and attributions that are no longer considered valid. The same goes for estimated dates of the artworks. In the database entries, reference is made to the following selection of literature:
Hofstede de Groot 1907-1928
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, Esslingen a. N. 1907-1928
Valentiner 1923
W.R. Valentiner, Frans Hals: des Meisters Gemälde, Berlin 1923
Slive 1970-1974
S. Slive, Frans Hals, 3 vols., London 1970-1974
Montagni/Grimm 1974
E.C. Montagni & C. Grimm, L'opera completa di Frans Hals, Milan 1974
Grimm 1989
C. Grimm, Frans Hals. Das Gesamtwerk, Stuttgart/Zürich 1989
Washington/London/Haarlem 1989-1990
S. Slive (ed.), Frans Hals, ex.cat. Washington (National Gallery of Art), London (Royal Academy of Arts) & Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum) 1989-1990
This publication has been developed in collaboration with the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, and with the help of many enthusiastic colleagues from all over the world. I would like to specifically express my gratitude towards the Gravin van Bylandt Stichting, the De Gijselaar-Hintzenfonds and Ambassador J. William Middendorf for generously providing funding for the translation of the manuscript and for reproduction rights. In addition, a special word of thanks goes out to former RKD curator Nadja Garthoff, and to interns Frédérique Beerse, Jessie Fransen, Anisia Iacob, Kim Mulder and Oana Stan, who have meticulously included all artworks in RKD images and assisted with the editing of the catalogue entries.
Ellis Dullaart MA
Curator Dutch and Flemish Old Master Painting / Project manager RKD Study Frans Hals and his workshop
RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History
