Frans Hals: Virtuosity and Vice

Excellent online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at the reputation of Frans Hals.

Marrigje Rikken, Head of the Collections at the Frans Hals Museum, was interviewed by Lelia Packer, curator of the current exhibition of the artists work at the Wallace Collection. They talked about how Hals had gained a reputation for drunkenness and profligate living shortly after his death which was partly based on the ruddy complexions of his genre figures and recorded incidences of him being in debt. However further research shows that he was supporting 13 children including two who seem to have been admitted to an asylum.

The other side of his reputation is how his art was viewed and again his work fell out of fashion shortly after he died but was later ‘rediscovered’ by the Impressionists and gained notoriety with the purchase by Richard Wallace of “The Laughing Cavalier”. However in his own time he was obviously highly thought of by his clientele, despite his loose brushwork, as they continued to commission work from him with sitters coming from Antwerp to be painted by him and a prestigious commission of a group portrait for Amsterdam, although this had be finished by another artist.

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