Portrait of a Man

Artist Frans Hals (Dutch, ca. 1581 - 1666)

Dateca. 1650

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 41 1/4 × 35 1/2 inches (104.78 × 90.17 cm)
Framed: 55 × 49 × 6 1/4 inches (139.7 × 124.46 × 15.88 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-90

SignedNone

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionFull-face, three-quarter-length portrait of a standing, bearded, mustachioed man wearing wide-brimmed hat, white collar with lace trim, black satin jacket with velvet cuffs, and black mangle draped over left shoulder and about the waist; left hand holds glove flat against body, right hand at hip; dark background.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450-1900, Royal Academy of Art, London, January–March 1929, no. 123.

An Exhibition of Fifty Paintings by Frans Hals. Seventeenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, The Detroit Institute of the Arts, January 10–February 28, 1935, no. 46.

Frans Hals tentoonstelling: ter gelegenheid van het 75-jarig bestaan van het Gemeentelijk Museum te Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, July 1–September 30, 1937, no. 100.

Dutch Paintings, Etchings, Drawings, Delftware of the Seventeenth Century, John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, February 27–April 11, 1937, no. 46.

Paintings by Frans Hals, Schaeffer Galleries, Inc., New York, November 9–23, 1937, no. 24.

Masterpieces of Dutch Art, Grand Rapids Art Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, May 1940, no. 26.

Masterpieces of Art. W.R. Valentiner Memorial Exhibition, North Carolina Museum of Art, April 6–May 17, 1959, no. 65.

Great Dutch Paintings in America, Mauritshuis, The Hague, September 28, 1990-January 13, 1991; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, February 16, 1991-May 5, 1991, no. 27.

Gallery Label

Celebrated portraitist Frans Hals distinguished himself from his contemporaries by his vigorous and free brushwork. This approach brought to life his subjects, many of whom came from some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Haarlem. In this portrait of an unidentified gentleman, a broadly brushed dark line suggests the flicker of a smile creeping up one side of his face. With one hand on his hip, the subject holds a conventional pose intended to convey self-confidence and authority. His fashionable black satin suit and linen collar also signal his high social standing.

Provenance

Count Maurycy Klemens Zamoyski (1871–1939), Warsaw, by 1897–1921;

With Henry Reinhardt and Son, New York, 1921;

Purchased from Henry Reinhardt and Son by John McCormack (1884–1945), New York, 1921–June 1930;

Purchased from McCormack by Bachstitz Gallery, The Hague, Netherlands, and New York, stock no. Ru 1381, June 1930–1931 [1];

Purchased from Bachstitz Gallery, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

NOTES:

[1] Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York, Bachstitz Gallery Records, Box 19, folder 3; copy in NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Abraham Bredius, "Onbekende Rembrandts in Polen, Galicie en Rusland," De Nederlandsche Spectator, no. 25 (June 19, 1897), 197.

Ernest Wilhelm Moes, Frans Hals. Sa Vie et Son Oeuvre (Brussels: G. van Oest, 1909), 105.

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Based on the Works of John Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, vol. 3 (London: Macmillan, 1910), no. 320, p. 91.

J.O. Kronig, “Een tijdelijke aanwinst van het Gemeentelijk Museum te Haarlem,” Kunst en Kunstleven 1 (1911): 137–138, (repro.).

Wilhelm von Bode and M. J. Binder, Frans Hals, sein Leben und seine Werke, vol. 2 (Berlin: Photographische Gesellschaft, 1914), 67, (repro.).

“John McCormack Pays $150,000 for a Hals, ‘Portrait of a Man,’ from Polish Collection,” American Art News 20 (November 12, 1921): 1, (repro.).

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Frans Hals. Des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abbildungen,” in Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 28, 2^nd ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1923), 240, (repro.).

“America lends Dutch paintings to London show,” The Art News 27 (December 29, 1928): 1, 13, 14, (repro.).

Commemorative Catalogue of Exhibition of Dutch Art, exh. cat. (London: Burlington House, 1929), 51, (repro.).

Dutch Art. An Illustrated Souvenir of the Exhibition of Dutch Art at Burlington House (London, 1929), 34, 35, (repro.).

Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450-1900, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of the Arts, 1929), 65.

A. Stheeman, “Over enkele oude meesters op de Londensche tentoonstelling van Hollandsche kunst. Een leeken–indruk,” Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 39 (1929): 149, (repro.).

Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Dutch Art Held in the Galleries of the Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, January – March 1929 (Oxford and London, 1930), 51–52, (repro.).

Franz Dülberg, Frans Hals: Ein Leben und ein Werk (Stuttgart: P. Neff, 1930), 194.

“A Notable Hals Portrait at the Bachstitz Galleries,” The Art News 29 (March 28, 1931): 4, (repro.).

“Important Hals for the Kansas City Museum,” The Art News 29 (August 15, 1931): 3.

“Two Important Museum Acquisitions,” The Antiquarian 17 (October 1931): 41, 54, (repro.)

“Experts Praise Art Acquisitions of Kansas City,” The Art News 30 (April 23, 1932): 15.

“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 30.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 29, (repro.)

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Great Hals Exhibition Opens in Detroit,” The Art News (January 1935): 4, (repro.).

“Fifty Paintings by Frans Hals, Owned in America, Shown in Detroit,” The Art Digest 9 (January 15, 1935): 5, 13.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, et al., An Exhibition of Fifty Paintings by Frans Hals. Seventeenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, exh. cat. (Detroit Institute of Arts, 1935), unpaginated, (repro.).

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Frans Hals Paintings in America (Westport, CT: Sherman, 1936), unpaginated, (repro.).

“Frans Hals, ‘Laureate of Laughter’ Honored by his Native Haarlem,” The Art Digest 11 (June, 1937): 7.

Helen Comstock, "The Connoisseur in America," Connoisseur 100 (August 1937): 87–88.

Ella S. Siple, “Paintings from American Collection Now on Loan in the Frans Hals Museum at Haarlem,” The Burlington Magazine 71 (August 1937): 87–88.

“Hals in America,” The Art Digest 12 (November 15, 1937): 7.

E.P. Richardson, “Hals. An Important Showing,” Parnassus 9 (1937): 5–7, (repro.).

Dutch Paintings, Etchings, Drawings, Delftware of the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. (Indianapolis: John Herron Art Museum, 1937), unpaginated, (repro.).

Frans Hals. Tentoonstelling ter gelegenheid van het 75-jarig bestaan van het Gemeentelijk Museum te Haarlem op 30 Juni 1937, exh. cat. (Haarlem: Frans Hals Museum, 1937), 50, (repro.).

Paintings by Frans Hals, exh. cat. (New York, Schaeffer Galleries, 1937), unpaginated.

Masterpieces of Dutch Art. Exhibition Manual, exh cat. (Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids Art Gallery, 1940), 6.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 64, (repro.).

G.D. Gratama, Frans Hals, 2^nd ed. (1943: The Hague, 1946), 58, (repro.).

“John McCormack, Noted Tenor, Dies,” The New York Times (September 17, 1945): 23.

“Late Portraits by Hals,” The Connoisseur 138 (January 1947): 278–279, (repro.).

“’Portrait of an Unknown Woman,’ by Frans Hals in the City Art Museum of St. Louis,” The Art Quarterly 18 (1955): 417.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 78, (repro.).

H. Comstack, “The Connoisseur in America,” The Connoisseur 142 (1959): 278–279, (repro.).

Masterpieces of Art. In Memory of William R. Valentiner, 1880–1958: Representing his Achievements During Fifty Years of Service in American Museums, exh. cat. (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1959), 116, 117, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 98, (repro.).

Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (London: Phaidon, 1970–1974), 1:184; 2: unpaginated, (repro.); 3:95.

Claus Grimm, “Frans Hals und seine Schule,” Münchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Künste 22 (1971): 163.

Michael Jaffé, “The Flemish and Dutch Schools,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 508–509, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 118, (repro.).

H.P. Baard, Frans Hals (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1981), 62, (repro.).

Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Washington D.C.: The Netherlands–American Amity Trust, 1986), 178, (repro.).

Ben Broos, ed., Great Dutch Paintings from America, exh. cat. (The Hague: Mauritshuis, 1990), 261–263, 266, (repro.).

M. Therese Southgate, “The Cover,” Journal of the American Medical Association (August 28, 1998): 584, (repro.).

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