Portrait of François Wouters (1600 - 1661)
About this artwork
The sitter has recently been identified as François Wouters, a councillor, alderman, and mayor in Haarlem. Hals depicted him twice in group portraits: in 1639 as lieutenant of the St George Civic Guard and in 1641 as one of the regents of the St Elisabeth Hospital (both paintings are in the Frans Hals-Museum, Haarlem). The pendant portrait representing Wouters’s second wife, Susanna Baillij, is on display nearby, his magnificent brushwork, subtle use of black tones, careful modulation of colour, and the sharp characterisation of the sitters make these some of Hals’s best portraits of the period.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Frans Hals (about 1580/85 - 1666) Dutch
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title:Portrait of François Wouters (1600 - 1661)
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date created:1645
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:115.00 x 86.10 cm; Framed: 144.70 x 114.50 x 9.50 cm / 38.00 kg
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object type:
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credit line:Presented by William McEwan 1885
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accession number:NG 691
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gallery:
Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Hals’s fame rests on his lively and spirited portraits, although he also painted some religious works and genre scenes. He worked almost exclusively in Haarlem, where he developed a remarkable fluency in painting and achieved a sense of immediacy and spontaneity through his animated brushwork. This...
