Frans Hals was the hero of the evening at the Yerkes sale at
Mendelssohn Hall, April 7, 1910. His “Portrait of a Woman”
brought the highest price of the evening, $137,000, the highest
price ever given for a picture at a sale in America and $8,000
more than the record-breaking price of the evening before,
$129,000, which was paid for a wonderful Turner.
The dear old Dutch woman whose portrait Frans Hals painted more
than 400 years ago could never have dreamed, if her practical
soul was given to anything in the nature of visions, of ever
being worth, in any form, so very many thousand dollars. She
was the calmest-looking person in the hall when the curtains
were drawn aside and she was revealed sitting quietly in her
big chair, a wide ruff around her plump throat, a close cap
encircling her placid face, one hand at her waist as she sat
primly for her portrait, the other at her side clasping her
Bible.--New York _Times_.
(2369)
=Pictures=--See PIETY.