Frans Hals at the Rijksmuseum

Hals' works on display for the first time in Amsterdam

A selection of some 50 key works has been made from the enormous oeuvre of Frans Hals. Partly from the Rijksmuseum's own collection (such as The cheerful drinker and Portrait of a couple) and partly thanks to special loans, for which we are extremely grateful.

For example, The laughing cavalier from the Wallace Collection in London, a work that normally never travels, can be seen, but also Catharina Hooft with her nurse and Malle Babbe (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), Family in a landscape (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and Young woman with a display of fruit and vegetables (Bridgenorth Private Collection).

Another first: two group portraits, the Banquet of the Officers of the Saint George Civic Guard from 1616 and 1627, leave the city of Haarlem for the first time ever.

Who was Frans Hals

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp in 1582 as the son of a weaver. In 1585 the family fled the Spaniards and ended up in Haarlem. Frans was trained there by painter Karel van Mander.

In 1610 he became a member of the Haarlem painter's guild and an independent painter with pupils and assistants, including Judith Leyster. Frans Hals became famous, admired and sometimes reviled for his 'rough style'. He mainly painted portraits, but also made masterful militia pieces. Frans Hals died in 1666 and is buried in the Grote Kerk in Haarlem.

Unprecedented mobility

The masterpieces in the exhibition make it clear that Frans Hals set himself the goal of depicting a living - and therefore moving - human being as convincingly as possible. He deliberately and with guts went in search of his own style that was completely original within Dutch 17th-century painting.

Hals opted for the rapid brushstroke that gave his subjects an unprecedented dexterity. The exhibition also examines the identity of the depicted persons and their environment, which brings them to life even more.

For example, Malle Babbe must have been a well-known figure in the streets of Haarlem and his Peeckelhaering was probably an English actor who toured the Netherlands with a theater company. Want to know more and buy tickets go to the website for all information.