Hals, Frans (c.1582-1666)
A Young Man in a Large Hat
1626–1629
Oil on panel, 29.3 x 23.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Frans Hals was the preeminent portrait painter in Haarlem, the most important artistic center of Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century. He was famous for his uncanny ability to portray his subjects with relatively few bold brushstrokes, and often used informal poses to enliven his portraits. Even though the young man’s turned pose and the artist’s extremely free brushwork have a genrelike quality, this small panel may very well be a portrait of Hals’ teenage son Harmen, whose appearance later in life is known from a drawing in the Haarlem archives. Hals frequently used an illusionistic oval framing device for small-scale portraits he painted in the 1610s and 1620s. Although some of these small portraits served as modelli for engraved portraits, no print related to this image seems to have been made. The close-up composition and informal pose allowed Hals to reinforce the dynamic, three-dimensionality of the young man, whose elbow projects beyond the painted picture frame into the viewer’s space. Shown from the waist up, a smiling, light-skinned young man wears a voluminous, dark hat and a brown suit in this vertical portrait painting. He sits with his body angled to our left so his right elbow, farther from us, hooks over the back of his wooden chair. He turns his face so his chin is pulled slightly back to look at us over his left shoulder with dark eyes under dark brows. His cheeks are flushed and his light brown mustache frames his pink lips, parted in a smile. His straight brown hair falls to his ears under a wide-brimmed hat as wide as his shoulders. The brim is pushed up and is broad enough that it covers the crown of the hat. A flat, white, lace-edged collar is tied with a red ribbon at his throat. Wide lace cuffs extend back along his forearms over his pecan-brown jacket, which is lined with a row of shiny buttons down the front. His left hand, closer to us, seems to rest on his lap just out of sight, so that elbow juts toward us. His other hand wraps in a fist around the finial of the chair back. He sits beyond an oval opening painted to resemble a stone frame within the rectangular panel. The face of the oval frame and the background behind the man are shades of peanut and fawn brown. The painting is created with fluid and loose brushstrokes, especially in the clothing. (NGA)