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Jerry Tse. Feb 2009. London. Version 1.0. All rights reserved. Available free for non-commercial and non-profit use only Frans Hals c1582 - 1666 A bravado painter with rough slashes and personality portraits. A 1850s copy of Frans Hals self-portrait. Friedsam Collection. Metropolitan Museum. New York

Van Dyck & Frans Hals They painted two of the proudest men in 17 Century.

An early genre painting. The fool symbolised by the hanging sausages and herring garland. The spoon in the man’s hat symbolise greed. The sausages and bag-pipes have erotic associations.

A most captivating of his early works. Both subjects were painted with freshness, as they look out of the canvas, acknowledge the painter. The brush work in the painting is more refine with elaborately detailed on the baby’s costume.

Two newly weds very much in love.

Wealthy patrons were friends of Frans Hals. A shy smile and a stroll in the garden.

A youthful man with a skull. These type of painting are called vanitas (emptiness) It reminds us of our mortality.

Watch the hands

A more subtle smile than the famous Mona Lisa. He was at the same age as Mona Lisa. Brilliantly painted costume. A vivid frankness portrayal of swaggering self confidence.

Flaming winged arrows, lovers’ knots and bees. All these are emblem of love.

Another Mona Lisa’s smile. Her low cut costume indicates that she is a prostitute, possibly soliciting business in a tavern.

No moralising about drinking. His subject has a sparkle and vigour that enjoy the pleasures of drinking only. David Hockney, the modern British painter noted that there were a lot of left hander drinkers in the Dutch paintings. He thinks that it is because the painters used the camera lucida to help them draw accurately. So Frans Hals could well be using such a device in his paintings.

A formidable character. The owl on her shoulder usually associated with wisdom today, but in the past it symbolized many qualities, including drunkenness. What a gigantic tankard of beer that she was drinking.

“Orange, white and blue fellow in the left corner… seldom have I seen a more divinely beautiful figure.” Van Gogh

Smaller head elongates the body, making his subjects taller and more elegant.

What a relax portrait, a man at ease with himself.

In many his paintings, the background are often bare with Caravagesque lighting to capture the authentic life.

What a charming smile! A rose in hand representing love. She radiates a sense of warmth and life. A very different person to the Malle Babbe and the Gipsy Girl.

Look at the very rushed and economic brushstrokes

His last painting with no compromise on depicting old age. During the winter of 1664, he was given three cartloads of charity peat .

A very informal pose. This painting was sold for £7m in July 2008.

Her works were often attributed to Frans Hals in the 18C. His talented pupil - Judith Leyster

His brother and five of his sons were also painters.

Formidable Contemporary Dutch portraitists

The End They did it their ways too - Music : My Way sung by Frank Sinatra written by Paul Anka. “He did in pictorial terms what Balzac did two centuries later in literature.” John Berger. “Now recognized as one of the greatest portrait painters of all time … [he] was ignored for two centuries. The in the 1800s, Edouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh and others rediscovered his work and were influenced by his freedom of style, use of colour and technique … “ Encyclopaedia of Britannica. “… caught in a fleeting gesture or expression. … like school photograph… the sitters wanted and the very informality caused his work to be a great influence on… the Impressionists. “ Dictionary of Art & Artists. Another left hand drinker.