1582–1666

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp, probably around 1582 or 1583, and his family moved to Haarlem, where he spent his career. He became renowned for lively portraits and large group portraits of civic guards and regents. His loose, rapid brushwork, unusual in his time, captured fleeting expressions such as laughter. Later admired by Manet, Courbet and the Impressionists, he died in Haarlem in 1666, where the Frans Hals Museum now holds his major group portraits.