Hals, Frans (c.1582-1666)
Jester with a Lute
c.1623–1624
Oil on canvas, 70 x 62 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The title of Bouffon (it dates back at least to 1921) refers to the world of theater (stripes of costume) and the genre of allegory (vanity of music, madness, hearing). The painted copy from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (popular since its arrival in 1870 and long considered the original), from which two copies drawn by David Bailly derive (one from 1624, sale, London, Christie, 4 VII 2000, n ° 216, then at Haboldt, Paris–New York, cat. 2001, no. 15, the other from 1626, kept at the Rijksprentenkabinet in Amsterdam), is due to a close collaborator of Frans Hals (one thought of J. Leyster, a hypothesis now abandoned, to one of the sons of Frans Hals, to Dirck Hals…). – Dated around 1623–1624 (because of David Bailly’s copy, which appeared in 2000), at the beginning of the artist’s Caravaggio-Utrecht period. (Louvre)