Frans Hals began his career in Haarlem at a time of religious tensions. He is a friend of the purist doctrinaire Samuel Ampzing who promotes a simple and austere way of life for the Protestants.
Hals did not leave Haarlem and his art reflects the very specific ambience wanted by Ampzing. Portraitist of bourgeois and merchants, he does not confuse wealth and luxury. His sitters wear dark clothes only embellished with a white collar.
The faces have the same pictorial quality as the portraits made by Rembrandt but the monotony of his theme bored the following generations. The importance of his work was restored in the mid-nineteenth century by Thoré-Bürger who was also the discoverer of Vermeer.
In the early 1630s, Hals reduces his palette to gray, brown and black with an infinite variety of shades in these three colors. He is by that way reaching the high end of purism without losing the pictorial quality. His palette of blacks will be admired by van Gogh.
On December 6 in London, Christie's sells a pair of oils on canvas forming pendants, 93 x 68 cm each, lot 10 estimated £ 8M, in an exceptional state of preservation.
This pair is the three-quarter length portrait of a couple, dated 1637, possibly commissioned for their wedding anniversary. The man and the woman each hold a pair of deerskin gloves that symbolize their union. They are not identified but their age is recorded : 37 years old for the man and 36 for the woman.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's showing four masterpieces from the Eric Albada Jelgersma collection.
SOLD for £ 10M including premium
Hals did not leave Haarlem and his art reflects the very specific ambience wanted by Ampzing. Portraitist of bourgeois and merchants, he does not confuse wealth and luxury. His sitters wear dark clothes only embellished with a white collar.
The faces have the same pictorial quality as the portraits made by Rembrandt but the monotony of his theme bored the following generations. The importance of his work was restored in the mid-nineteenth century by Thoré-Bürger who was also the discoverer of Vermeer.
In the early 1630s, Hals reduces his palette to gray, brown and black with an infinite variety of shades in these three colors. He is by that way reaching the high end of purism without losing the pictorial quality. His palette of blacks will be admired by van Gogh.
On December 6 in London, Christie's sells a pair of oils on canvas forming pendants, 93 x 68 cm each, lot 10 estimated £ 8M, in an exceptional state of preservation.
This pair is the three-quarter length portrait of a couple, dated 1637, possibly commissioned for their wedding anniversary. The man and the woman each hold a pair of deerskin gloves that symbolize their union. They are not identified but their age is recorded : 37 years old for the man and 36 for the woman.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's showing four masterpieces from the Eric Albada Jelgersma collection.
SOLD for £ 10M including premium
Albada Jelgersma Collection ‘A Seminal Moment’ for Old Master Market, Says Christie’s https://t.co/djtV3ifd8l pic.twitter.com/zp6schgtMe
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) October 17, 2018
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