Women in the Paintings of Frans Hals

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at how Frans Hals depicted women.

Marjorie E. Wiseman from the National Gallery of Art, Washington took us through the role of women at different stages of their lives in the 17th century and how Hals depictions of them reflected this. I loved the blend of social and art history in the talk and the clear structure of the talk.

The lecture was in connection with the current Hals exhibition of male portraits so it was lovely to see some of the men in the show’s other halves in this lecture from their pendant pictures. Wiseman talked about how often the women’s portraits were painted in a smoother style as the convention of female beauty was for smooth complexions. This was despite the convention of the light coming into a pair of pictures from the upper right which leaves the man in flattering shadow and the woman in full light.

Her last section on older women was particularly interesting and I liked how Wiseman used five examples of individual portraits of them to illuminate the group picture of “The Regentesses of the Old Men’s Almshouse” shown here. She talked about how women were seen as ‘older’ from about 50 for working class women and 60 for the upper classes and how the belief in the humours controlling the body made people drier and colder in later life. I’m off to don a large jumper and apply moisturiser!

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