Frans Hals at the Metropolitan

Merrymakers at Shrovetide
around 1616-1617
oil on canvas
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

I love the works of Dutch masters, and Frans Hals occupies a special place among them. Each time I am in a museum and it happens to see a painting by Frans Hals I feel a special joy. Usually it comes after seeing Rembrandt and then the encounter with Hals comes to fill the gapes: they are different and together they make a whole universe; the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of the Earth.

I found in today's NY Times a great review on a Frans Hals exhibition on view at the Met, and i captured here for you some images. Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/arts/design/frans-hals-at-metropolitan-museum-review.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28

The Fisher Girl
year unknown
oil on canvas
Private collection
Credit: Private Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of an Old Man With a White Beard
around 1617-18
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Young Man and Woman in an Inn
(Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart)
1623
oil on canvas
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Smoker
cca 1625
oil on wood
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of scholar Petrus Scriverius (Peter Schryjver)
1626
oil on wood
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of Anna van der Aar (Petrus Scriverius' wife)
1626
oil on wood
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of minister, poet and jurist Samuel Ampzing
1630-1632
oil on copper
(http://www.bestpriceart.com/shop-online/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33_4040_2780&products_id=5854)

Portrait of a Man
(possibly beer brewer and art collector Nicolaes Pietersz Duyst van Voorhout)
1636-38
oil on canvas
Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art

(New York, New York)