Portrait of a Man
early 1650s
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
43 1/2 x 34 in. (110.5 x 86.4 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1890
Accession Number
91.26.9
Tags
About this artwork
This commanding portrait exemplifies Frans Hals's mature style during the early 1650s, showcasing the virtuoso brushwork and psychological penetration that established him as one of the Dutch Golden Age's greatest portraitists. The large canvas presents a fashionably dressed gentleman whose sober bearing suggests both social standing and personal authority, typical of prosperous Dutch burghers of the period. While the compositional arrangement follows patterns Hals employed twenty years earlier,...
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...