DMA curator Julien Domercq will talk about two portraits by Dutch painter Frans Hals made 10 years apart. Find out what we can discover about the artist’s technique by looking at how he returned to the same subject over time.
Two imposing portraits of the same sitter painted a decade apart showcase the revolutionary technique of Frans Hals (1582/83–1666). Hals, along with Rembrandt and Vermeer, is considered to be the third genius of the Dutch Golden Age. He was the foremost portraitist of his time, recognized for “painting character” through virtuosic, loose, and animated brushwork. The portraits of Pieter Jacobsz Olycan, one of the most powerful men in the Dutch city of Haarlem, demonstrate the evolution of the artist’s technique at the peak of his career.
Image: Frans Hals, Portrait of Pieter Jacobsz Olycan, 1629–30, oil on panel, Private Collection, by Courtesy of David Koetser Gallery, Zurich