Although we do not know exactly when (between 1585 and 1590) Frans Hals was born in Antwerp, we do know that he must have been one of the greatest portrait painters of his time. Even his contemporaries raved about the great accuracy and the very lively characterization of his figures. Already legendary during his lifetime, many streets in Holland, Belgium and Germany, as well as a EuroCity express train, are still named after him today.
The religious conflict between Spain and the Netherlands brought the family of the cloth merchant Franchoys Hals from Antwerp to Haarlem around 1590, where Frans Hals learned the craft of painting from 1603. Although he had been a member of the "Lukasgilde" - Haarlem's painters' guild - since 1610, Frans Hals was and remained a poor wretch throughout his life - for example, he had to bury his first wife in a pauper's grave. At that time one obviously did not get rich from paintings, moreover he had ten children to feed.
Instead of getting involved in historical or landscape painting, Frans Hals specialized in the commissioned jobs of his time, in portraits. He painted all the portraits of the Haarlem Shooting Guild, the "city militia" in those warlike times. When the portraits of the marksmen's guild were out of fashion, Hals switched to group pictures, but continued to capture famous contemporaries on canvas, such as the famous portrait of the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes or the painter and art collector Jan van de Capelle. His studies of unknown "little people", however, are even more impressive to today's viewers: Hals was not too ashamed to paint gypsy women or even alcoholics. With them he could also give free rein to his powers of observation instead of diplomatically restraining them.
Along with Anthonis van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals is counted among the "Big Three" of that era of portrait painting. When Hals was elected president of the Luke Guild in 1644, Rubens and van Dyck had died shortly before.
More than 200 paintings can be clearly attributed to Frans Hals, in addition to over a hundred others whose authorship is not certain - if only because Frans Hals trained five of his sons as painters as well. The portrait of René Descartes is, of course, just as undoubtedly his work as "The Officers' Banquet" and "The Rommelpot Player".
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.jpg "The Lute Player, c. 1623-24 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Jester with a Lute by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "A Girl Singing by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Laughing Cavalier, 1624, 1943 by Frans Hals")
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_c1649_-_(MeisterDrucke-64596).jpg "Portrait of René Descartes (1596-1650), c. 1649 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Unknown Man, 1660-63 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of Lucas de Clercq, Belgian Merchant of Weaving Products by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Sara Andriesdochter Hessix, 1626 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Pieter van den Broecke by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Merry Drinker, 1628-1630 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Laughing Boy, c. 1625 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of Jasper Schade van Westrum by Frans Hals")
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_c1649_(detail_of_32939)_-_(MeisterDrucke-93069).jpg "Portrait of René Descartes (1596-1650), c. 1649 (detail of 32939) by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man with a Glove and Black Hair, c. 1657 by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-93798).jpg "The Gypsy Woman, c.1628-30 (panel) by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Elderly Man, Traditionally Called Heer Bodolphe by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Elderly Woman, Traditionally Called Mevrouw Bodolphe by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Young Woman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Militia Company of District XI under the Command of Captain Reynier Reael, Known as")
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.jpg "Copy of The Bohemian by Frans Hals by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1273353).jpg "Portrait of René Descartes (1596-1650) by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1659542).jpg "The Mulatto, Probably a Popular Figure of Dutch Comedy by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Meeting of the Officers and Sergeants of the Calivermen Civic Guard by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a woman, 1644 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Glove by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Group portrait of officers and sub-alterns of the Civic Guard in Haarlem by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Banquet of the Officers of the Corps of Saint Adrien of Haarlem by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man, c.1660 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man with Hat and Ruff Collar by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Gentleman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Andries van der Horn by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "A Young Man in a Large Hat by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "A Family Group in a Landscape by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Bearded Man with a Ruff by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Catarina Both van der Eem by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-130625).jpg "Portrait of a Preacher by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Couple, Probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man holding Gloves by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Lady by Frans Hals")
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_cir_-_(MeisterDrucke-1022237).jpg "Portrait of a Man in a Yellow-Gray Frock by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "A Militiaman Holding a Berkemeyer, Known as the")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man, c.1643-45 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Lady, 1627 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a man, possibly Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Merry Drinker by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Elderly Man, Traditionally Called Heer Bodolphe by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Fisher Boy by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Regentesses of the Old Men")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Gentleman by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1582984).jpg "Portrait of a young man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Man, 1650-55 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Couple, Probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man, Probably Jan Miense Molenaer by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Gentleman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Couple, Probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Elderly Woman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Man with the Slouch Hat by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Laughing Child by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-907195).jpg "Portrait of a Member of the Haarlem Civic Guard by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Peeckelhaeringh by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Herman Langelius by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Gentleman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man, Possibly a Clergyman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman, Probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater, 1638 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man Sitting, Wearing a Soft Hat by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Nicolaas Stenius, Catholic Pastor of Akersloot in 1650 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Glove, c1650 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Elderly Lady by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman with a Fan by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Lute Player by David Bailly")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man, Possibly Nicolaes Pietersz Duyst van Voorhout, ca. 1636-38 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Member of the Haarlem Civic Guard by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Saint Matthew the Evangelist by Frans Hals")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-901384).jpg "Portrait of a Young Man with a Glove, c.1640 by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "A Small Portrait of a Man Holding Gloves by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Elderly Man, Traditionally Called Heer Bodolphe by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of Painter Jan Asselyn by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Couple in a Landscape by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Saint John the Evangelist by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "St. Mark by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Anna van der Aar by Frans Hals")
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_(1594-1667)_Second_w_-_(MeisterDrucke-1558012).jpg "Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Nicolaes Hasselaer by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "The Rommel-Pot Player by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman, Probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Maria Pietersdochter Olycann, Wife of Andries van der Horn by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man, early 1650s by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman Standing by Frans Hals")
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.jpg "Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa by Frans Hals")
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