Although the great Dutch painter, Frans Hals (1580?-1666) was born
at Antwerp, his parents were natives of Haarlem, whither he removed
about 1600, and where he settled for the remainder of his eventful,
irregular, and improvident career. This lusty and unromantic master by
his forceful characterisation, his rapid wielding of his brush, and his
frank realism, in a few years transformed the earlier portrait-making
of Holland, and the rendering of the commonplace and obvious
likeness of an individual, as seen in the works of Moreelse and
others, into the region of great art. He was by about a quarter of
a century the senior of Rembrandt, who is the greatest genius among
Dutch painters, and developed his art on logical lines. It is, however,
necessary to know the outstanding facts of his personal history, the
fluctuating circumstances under which he worked, and the grinding
poverty of his latest period. Perhaps no other painter in the whole
range of art was so affected by his environment as Hals.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVII.—FRANS HALS
(1580?-1666)