Boy with a Lute
ca. 1625
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
28 3/8 x 23 1/4 in. (72.1 x 59.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Accession Number
14.40.604
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the heart of the Dutch Golden Age, Frans Hals captures youthful charm in *Boy with a Lute* (ca. 1625), an oil-on-canvas portrait that exemplifies his mastery of lively, expressive portraiture. Hals, a leading Haarlem painter, was renowned for his loose, fluid brushwork—a departure from the stiff realism of his contemporaries—which brings a sense of immediacy and spontaneity to his subjects. This half-length depiction of a boy holding a lute reflects the era's prosperity and cultural fascination with music, where lutes symbolized refinement and leisure among the emerging middle class. The b...
About the Artist
Frans Hals · 1582–1666
Dutch portrait artist whose unique style of loose brushstrokes was labeled 'unfinished' by some at the time, but whose work is now regarded as equally important to Rembrandt's. Hals painted 'wet on wet'; that coupled with his brushwork and his powerful illumination of his subjects' head and face, his portraits seem more animated than others. Although the reception to his work was often mixed, Hals...