''Laughing boy with a flute'' is an oil-on-panel painting by the
Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals
Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...
, painted in 1626 and now in the
Staatliches Museum Schwerin
The Staatliches Museum Schwerin (State Museum Schwerin) is an art gallery and museum in Schwerin in Germany. It was established by Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1882 its historicist Haupthaus as the ''Staatsgalerie'' ...
,
Schwerin.
Painting
The painting shows a boy with a flute with his head at an angle facing the viewer.
Provenance
In his 1910 catalog of Frans Hals works
Hofstede de Groot
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator.
Life
He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...
wrote: "32. A LAUGHING BOY WITH A FLUTE. B. 118 ; M. 230. Half-length ; life size, almost in full face. The line of the shoulders rises to the left. The head is also almost in full face, but slightly inclined to the left. The long hair falls down, but a lock dangles just
above the right shoulder. The eyes look at the spectator. The left hand holds a flute. Light-grey background. Broadly painted. The ground shows through the paint. A life-like rendering.
endant to 11.Circular panel, 15 inches across. In the Schwerin Museum, 1882 catalogue, No. 444"
Hofstede de Groot
on A Laughing Boy with a Flute; catalog number 32
This painting is a pendant to '' Boy with a glass and a pewter jug'' and the pair has long been considered to be part of a series on the five senses, where this one symbolizes hearing and the drinking boy symbolizes taste:
File:Frans Hals - Drinking Boy (Taste) - WGA11089.jpg, ''Boy with a glass and a pewter jug''
File:Frans Hals - Boy holding a Flute (Hearing) - WGA11090.jpg, ''Laughing boy with a flute''
See also
* List of paintings by Frans Hals
References
{{17C-painting-stub
1626 paintings
Paintings by Frans Hals
Paintings in Schwerin
Musical instruments in art