The Mystery of the Girl in Blue

Public Favorite

The portraits of the young girl in the striking blue dress and her parents remained together for a long time, but eventually the portraits ended up in different museums. The parents eventually ended up in Rijksmuseum Twenthe and the little daughter in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. There, 'the girl in blue' grew into a crowd favorite.

To this day, we still do not know who the girl and her parents are. That is why Professor Frans Grijzenhout, known from the TV program Kunstraadsels, went in search of the trio's identity.

Verspronck and Hals

The three portraits were last together in Haarlem at the Frans Hals Museum in 1979, during an exhibition on Johannes Verspronck (1601/03–1662). During your visit to the Frans Hals Museum, you can admire more work by the Haarlem painter. You can also compare his work with that of his fellow townsman Frans Hals (c. 1583–1666), who was twenty years older and may even have been his teacher.