Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on Frans Hals. Clare Ford-Wille led us through the career of Hals and set him in the context of his time. I found her narrative a bit disjointed at times, however in her defence, I have done a lot on Hals around the show at the National Gallery and the previous one at the Wallace Collection so there probably wasn’t a lot more to learn. She did however provide good study notes after the talk which will be really useful to refer back to.  

Superb exhibition at the National Gallery on Frans Hals. This was a beautifully hung show with an excellent commentary which was cleverly written in places. It was well paced with space to Iook at the works. The whole effect was like walking into a jolly party and you wanted to sink down and chat with the sitters in the portraits. The faces were fresh and honest and I became slightly obsessed by ruffs and lace collars. My favourite pieces were the group portraits either of militia companies or family groups. I was astonished that the Rijksmuseum had lent “The Meagre Company”. I also loved the husband and wife pendant pictures which had been reunited. My favourite hang was the double portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen, also from the Rijksmuseum, shown with two other portraits of Massa. Beware I have a number of lectures and courses on Hals and the Dutch Golden Age so you’ll be hearing lots more about him from me! Closes 21 January 2023 Reviews Times Guar...

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...

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 f...

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 ....

Delightful exhibition at the Wallace Collection bringing together a selection of portraits of male sitters by Frans Hals. The centre piece and starting point was of course their own glorious “Laughing Cavalier” who is neither laughing or a cavalier but is still a wonderful, engaging picture. He was reunited with others of the elite of Harleem also painted by Frans Hals. They were arranged in chronological order which allowed you to see how his brushwork went from meticulously detailed to free and loose but with a similar effect. I was fascinated by the commentaries on the sitters such as Jasper Schade from 1645, an aspiring young aristocrat who paid the equivalent of ¾ of a skilled artisan’s annual income on a single outfit. Other were more sober looking but they seemed to be a great pride in large bellies. I love these sorts of shows which put you amongst a generation of people who almost certainly knew each other. You not only learn about the art but also the people and societ...