Frans Hals · c. 1581/85 - 1666
Frans Hals
Frans Hals (d. 1666) was a 17th-century Dutch painter. He won fame as a portraitist who painted lively figures with forceful brushwork, and even gave his genre paintings the character of portraits.
Frans Hals was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. He is thought to have been born in Antwerp to Flemish parents who had moved to the Netherlands. He died in 1666.
He was active as a portraitist and genre painter, but was essentially a portraitist, and even his genre paintings have the character of portraits. His work was centered in Haarlem, where wealthy citizens commissioned many portraits of individuals, couples, families, and groups. His birth year is given as around 1581-85 and is not certain. He had won fame as a painter of outstanding originality in this field.
His paintings, dashed off in one go, convey the spirit of the newly risen Netherlands well through their forceful brushwork, color, and nuances of light and shade. One of his works is Portrait of a Man.
