Hals Meets Manet, Singer Sargent, Van Gogh.
Frans Hals was rediscovered as a modern idol exactly 150 years ago. He was admired and venerated by late nineteenth-century artists like Manet, Singer Sargent, Liebermann and Van Gogh. The Frans Hals Museum is showing unique masterpieces from national and international museums and private collections. There has never before been an exhibition of this magnitude.
Frans Hals, c’est un moderne
This exhibition shows the immense impact Frans Hals had on these modern painters. For the first time, paintings by the famous seventeenth-century portrait painter are being shown alongside responses to his work from other major eras of painting. Seeing works by Frans Hals alongside virtuoso work by the artists he inspired gives insight into how modern Frans Hals was in their eyes: ‘Frans Hals, c’est un moderne’.
“Why do we think that a portrait by Frans Hals seems good? Because it convinces us. And why does it convince us? Because it lives.”
Rediscovery of Hals
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the rediscovery of Frans Hals (Antwerp c. 1582 – Haarlem 1666) and his transformation from a licentious drunkard into a modern idol. In the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth, Hals’s loose, rough painting manner was at odds with prevailing views about style.
In the eighteen-sixties this image underwent a radical change. A leading French art magazine ran an article extolling Hals’s virtuosity and bold brushwork as an example for modern artists. It prompted unprecedented interest in Hals’s work and artistic qualities. Prices of his work skyrocketed and every self-respecting museum and collector was eager to acquire a Hals.
At the same time, this re-evaluation sparked a veritable pilgrimage to the then Gemeentemuseum in Haarlem – the forerunner of the Frans Hals Museum. Haarlem emerged as a place of pilgrimage for artists. The visitors’ books of the time show that modern painters like Monet, Manet, Liebermann, John Singer Sargent and James Whistler visited the museum.
They had travelled hundreds of miles by boat or train to Haarlem to marvel at Hals’s work – and even to worship it. Inspired by Hals’s swift brushstrokes, his subjects and his pictorial vocabulary they set to work. Some of them copied him in order to master his style. The exhibition highlights Frans Hals’s impact on these modern artists.
Frans Hals’s impact on great modern painters*
“I can’t actually believe that Hals wasn’t a Spaniard as well. It wouldn’t be that odd, after all he came from Mechelen (which was in the Spanish Netherlands)”
Hof and Hal
The exhibition is staged in the Hof location of the Frans Hals Museum. The exhibition Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise is staged in the Hal location. Your admission ticket for Frans Hals and the Moderns is valid for both the Frans Hals Museum locations. Our two venues are a seven-minute picturesque walk apart. Teylers Museum is an eight-minute walk from the Hof and entry is included when you buy a combination ticket.
Regentesses of the Old Men’s Alms House
ca. 1664
Oil on canvas
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem
Photo: René Gerritsen
Detail of Two Figures of ‘The Regentesses of the Old Men’s Almshouse, Haarlem’, after Frans Hals
1880
Oil on canvas
128,7 x 58,4 cm
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Newhouse, 1962
Copy of Regentesses of the Old Men’s Almshouse, after Frans Hals
Private collection, Italy
Malle Babbe
1869
Oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Photo: bpk - Elke Walford
Malle Babbe
1630/35
Oil on canvas
Gemäldegolerie, Berlin
Photo: bpk / P. Jörg Anders, Gemäldegolerie
Postman Joseph Roulin
1888
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gift of Robert Treat Paine
Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A Dutch Gentleman
1643/45
Oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Presented by William McEwan, 1885
Portrait of a Bearded Man with a Ruff
1625
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Jules Baches Collection, 1949
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Constance Wynne-Roberts, Mrs Ernest Hills of Redleaf (died 1932)
1895
Oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Bequest of Mrs Ernest Hills, 1933
Boy with Pitcher (La Régalade)
Ca. 1862/72
Oil on canvas
The Art Institute of Chicago
Bequest of Katharine Dexter McCormick
Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence
Head of a Prostitute
1885
Oil on canvas
35.2 x 24.4 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Corner of a Café-Concert
1878/80
Oil on canvas
The National Gallery, London
Bought, Courtauld Fund, 1924
The Smoker
Ca. 1623-25
Oil on wood
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Laughing Boy
ca. 1625
Collection Mauritshuis, The Hague
Laughing boy (Jopie van Slouten)
1910
Oil on canvas
61 x 50,8 cm
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Gift of the Friends of American Art in honor of Edward Weeks, former curator of the Birmingham Museum of Art, 1991
Madame Roulin and her baby
1888
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Robert Lehman Collection
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Fisher Boy
1632/33
Oil on canvas
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
www.lukasweb.be – Art in Flanders vzw
Photo: Hugo Maertens
“I’ve seldom seen a more divinely beautiful figure ... I stood there literally rooted to the spot.” Letter to Theo van Gogh, 10 October 1885.
Tickets
Single ticket
Only for a visit to the Frans Hals and the Moderns exhibition.
Combi ticket
One ticket for both exhibitions at a discount of € 7.50.
Group discount
Group discount for more than 10 visitors.
About the Frans Hals Museum
Follow us
Frans Hals Museum - Hof
Groot Heiligland 62
2011 ES Haarlem
Phone number: +31 (0) 23 511 5775
Email: meet@franshalsmuseum.nl
www.franshalsmuseum.nl
| Monday | closed |
| Tuesday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 - 18:00 |
Made possible with the support of and with special thanks to
*Copyrights
Vincent van Gogh
Madame Roulin and her baby
1888
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Robert Lehman Collection
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Robert Henri
Laughing boy (Jopie van Slouten)
1910
Oil on canvas
61 x 50,8 cm
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Gift of the Friends of American Art in honor of Edward Weeks, former
curator of the Birmingham Museum of Art, 1991
Frans Hals
The Smoker
Ca. 1623-25
Oil on wood
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence
Édouard Manet
Corner of a Café-Concert
1878/80
Oil on canvas
The National Gallery, London
Bought, Courtauld Fund, 1924
John Singer Sargent
Constance Wynne-Roberts, Mrs Ernest Hills of Redleaf (died 1932)
1895
Oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Bequest of Mrs Ernest Hills, 1933
Gustave Courbet
Malle Babbe
1869
Oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Photo: bpk - Elke Walford
Frans Hals
Portrait of Pieter Jacobsz Olycan
1629/30
Frans Hals Museum
On loan from a private collection
Photo: Margareta Svensson
