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The National Gallery in London is organizing a major retrospective dedi- cated to the Dutch portraitist Frans Hals (Antwerp 1582/1584 - Haarlem 1666). In partnership with the “Rjiksmuseum” in Amsterdam, the “Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museum” in Berlin and the exceptional competition of the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, this exhibition presents around fifty masterpieces from public and private collections around the world. .
Baroque artist, Frans Hals belongs to the Golden Age of Dutch painting and remains the master of the smile that he knew how to paint so expressively in each of his portraits.
In a period marked by the severity of religious art, he was one of the rare artists to put joy and life into his paintings.
His “Laughing Horseman” (1624) is the best-known example, his amusement radiating under his mustache. In his work, a range of emotions vibrates to the rhythm of the human soul, from the most perfect hilarity to contained joy and from malice to melancholy.
Portrait of Catharina Hooft with her Nurse, 1619–20
Oil on canvas, 91.8 × 68.3 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
© Photo Scala, Florence / bpk, Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin. Photo: Jörg P. Anders