You’re sure of a good time with hearty Hals
The Mona Lisa may have the most famous smile in art history, but if you’re looking for a painter who consistently and convincingly showed his subjects having a good time, forget Leonardo da Vinci. The great 17th Century Dutchman, Frans Hals, is your guy.
The subject of a major new exhibition at The National Gallery, Hals was predominantly a portrait artist and the show is packed with pictures of his sitters laughing, grinning and guffawing. The best-known example is 1624’s The Laughing Cavalier (on loan from the Wallace Collection), of a flashily dressed bachelor with an upturned moustache who seems to be issuing a come-on to every female viewer. Featuring 50 works, this is the first big Hals show in the UK for three decades. What’s striking as you walk around is how rare it is in exhibitions to see so many faces of merriment. More common is the type of portraiture produced by Hals’s solemn compatriot, Rembrandt, a master of psychological depth. (The curators suggest the reason that few people ever smile in portraits is that it’s actually hard to paint, and can easily end up looking like a grimace.)
Hals’s pictures are similar to snapshots. He catches his subjects – very often merchants from Haarlem, his home city – in informal poses in seemingly unguarded moments. The portrait of the grain merchant Isaac Abrahamsz Massa (1626) is thought to be the first portrait of a sitter swivelled right around on a chair that faces away from us. Massa’s twinkly eye is caught by something to our left, just out of picture – and he rests his arm on the chair’s top rail.
Do make sure you visit this show: you’re guaranteed a good time.