Frans Hals

Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in 1582 or 83 in Antwerpen, which was then in the Southern Netherlands. His father was a textile merchant and he moved the family to Haarlem while Frans was still an infant, and Frans spent the remainder of his long life there.

Hals entered the art world as an apprentice to Carel van Mander. As his art developed, he introduced a looser, more intimate style of painting with noticeable brushstrokes and he was instrumental in the evolution of the seventeenth-century group portraiture.

Saint Bavo church, which dominates the center of Haarlem, was originally built as a Catholic Church between 1370 and 1520 and became a cathedral in 1559. Less than twenty years later it was confiscated in the name of the Protestant Reformation and has been a Protestant church ever since. 

With the take over the church, all of its Catholic-oriented art was removed and mostly sold-off. Other confiscated paintings were restored by Frans Hals and transferred to Government buildings. During this time when religious theme paintings were losing popularity, Hals started his career in portraiture. He was accepted into the Sint Lucas Gilde; Haarlem's prominent painter's guild.

Frans Hals is best known for his portraits, mainly of wealthy citizens like Pieter van den Broecke and Isaac Massa, whom he painted three times. He also painted large group portraits of local civic leaders, military guards and Regents of local hospitals. In his group portraits, he innovated by capturing each character in a different pose and with individual facial expressions, offering a more relaxed atmosphere. Hals is also renowned for his character portraits of itinerant players and singers, gentlefolk, fishwives and tavern heroes.

After the deaths of Peter Paul Rubens in 1640 and Anthonis van Dyck in 1641, Frans Hals became the most prominent portrait painter in the Netherlands. Although Frans Hals' work was in demand throughout his life, he lived so long that he witnessed his work go out of style and experienced financial difficulties late in life. He continued to paint and worked as an art restorer, art dealer and an art tax expert for the city councilors.

In 1644 Frans Hals became the chairman of the Haarlem painters guild. He is regarded as the master of the Haarlem school of painting. He died in Haarlem on 10 August 1666 and was buried in of Saint Bavo church in the center of Haarlem.