Portrait of a Man
Frans Hals (Dutch, 1581–1666)
1655-1660
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- height 104 cm, width 84.5 cm, height 139.4 cm, width 121.5 cm
- Culture
- Dutch
- Museum
- SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
About this work
Directing a sombre, perhaps somewhat melancholy gaze out at us, this man looks at us with a physical and mental immediacy that bridges the 350 years separating his space from ours. The artist did not aim for idealisation. The asymmetrical features and jaundiced skin tones are depicted exactly as they are. The hands are gathered around a pair of gloves, closing the man off from the world. The calm, static pose is typical of the Baroque Classicism that infused Dutch art from around 1650 and a few decades ahead. The coarse mode of painting is a distinctive Baroque trait of Hals’ portrait. Using rapid, visible brushstrokes painted thinly and wet on wet, the figure has been fixed in a simple, effective manner. Even though the palette is limited to black, white, ochre, and red, the costumes and all other parts of the painting have a great variety of colour.
