Haarlem

Frans Hals Museum

 On our way back from the Magische Realisme in Spanbroek we spent a couple of hours at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. Housed in a former hospice for the aged it offers a wide selection of lesser Dutch paintings - mostly by Hals. Hals painted many conventional group assemblies of various civic organisations on commission. A lucrative business not without its charms - as the musical Molnaer family shows and the frightful spinsters who were the regents of the men's almshouse. - There is one revealing painting of a drawing class among them - a nude male model!

From an educational point of view it is instructive to compare these canvasses - clear portraits well lit of every member - no mushy light effects in the background - with Rembrandt's Nightwatch, which caused such a storm of indignation among the sponsors. Here you see what the rich citizens wanted.

Frans Hals, Molenaer Family, 1630

Frans Hals, Civil Guard, 1633

Frans Hals,, Sweerts Michel Drawing Class, 1658

Frans Hals, Regents of Elizabeth Hospital, Haarlem, 1660s

Frans Hals, Regents of Old Men's Almshouse, 1664