Cathy's Art Diary

Wonderful online study morning from the Wallace Collection to mark the end of their exhibition of Male portraits by Frans Hals. I loved this exhibition, went twice and had already done three talks from the gallery on the show, but I still found more to learn in this study morning. We started by looking at some of the female pendant portraits of the men in the show. They hadn’t been included as the plan was to use the Laughing Cavalier and his friends to explore masculinity. A talk on a new identification of a picture by Pieter Biesboer was fascinating but I must admit I got a bit lost in a family tree of Dutch names. An amazing piece of research though. The last talk of the day looked at whether the purchase of the Laughing Cavalier led to the rediscovery of Hals but argued that this had already started with the publication of various books in the proceeding few years which in fact boosted the bidding war. Oddly two independent talks linked. One looked at the Mennonites that H...

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 t...

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection on the gallery’s current Frans Hals exhibition. I’d been to the exhibition so it was brilliant to be talked through it by the curator Lelia Packer. She outlined the ideas behind the show then talked us through the 13 pictures in it explained why they were chosen and what stories they tell us about Hals work and Haarlem at the time. I loved the idea that she had arranged the pictures as if they were at a dinner party with the Laughing Cavalier at the head of the table. I loved the affection with which she talked about the pictures as if they were friends she had got to know as she organised the show. It really made me want to go back and see the show again now I know more. In particular I didn’t do the audio tour, as I often find them distracting, but I learnt that Greyson Perry comments on the works and I’d love to hear his views on them as well as those of experts on the period. The talk is available to watch on YouTube ....