''Portrait of a Dutch Family'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the

Dutch Golden Age painter Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Repub ...

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 ''c.'' 1635 and now in the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Painting

The painting is one of a handful of paintings that Hals made of families in the "picnic style" of open air settings, but this one seems to be executed entirely in the studio, complete with a Hals signature curtain. The family has been identified by the Dutch art historian Frans Grijzenhout in 2022. The backdrop seems artificially staged and is probably by another hand. The name of

Pieter de Molijn Pieter de Molijn (6 April 1595 in London – 23 March 1661 in Haarlem) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver of English birth and Flemish descent. He was baptized in the Dutch Reformed Austin Friars church in London. He was born to Pi ...

has been suggested by diverse art historians.

Name

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:

440. A FAMILY GROUP OF FOUR PERSONS. B. 35; M. 87. On a terrace, to the left, stands a man facing the spectator. He wears a broad-brimmed black hat and a black costume with a close-fitting ruff, His right foot is advanced. He turns his head three-quarters right, and makes a gesture with his right hand as if he is speaking. His wife, seated to the right, listens with a smile. Her right arm hangs down; her left hand is at her breast. She wears a black dress, a white cap, a white ruff, and thin white wristbands. To the right of her two laughing girls hold each other's hands. The elder one, to the left, holds an orange in her right hand. She is in black; the younger girl, to the right, is in brown or yellowish-grey. Both wear lace-trimmed caps and collars. Behind the figures is a table on which are a wine-glass and a lemon. In the background is a building overgrown with foliage; a drapery hangs down on the left; to the right is a view of a garden with a house. Roses are strewn in the foreground. Canvas, 44 inches by 36 inches. Exhibited in Paris, 1883, in an exhibition of masterpieces.
Sales: — J. van Leeuwaarden, widow of P. Merkman, Haarlem, September 21, 1773, No. 4. **(Probably) O. W. J. Berg van Dussen Muilkerk, Amsterdam, July 7, 1825, No. 44 (151 florins). **In the possession of the dealer Nieuwenhuys, 1862. Sales: — Vicomte du Bus de Gisignies, Brussels, May 7, 1882, No. 33. ** E. Secretan, Paris, July 1, 1889, No. 126. **In the collection of the late Rodolphe Kann, Paris. **In the possession of the London dealers Lawrie and Co. **In the possession of the Paris dealer C. Sedelmeyer, "Catalogue of 300 Paintings," 1898, No. 55. **In the collection of R. B. Angus, MontrealHofstede de Groot
on Family Group of Four Persons ; catalog number 440

This painting came into the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum via the bequest of Mary M. Emery.

References

* Frans Hals Exhibition catalog, 1989 for the Frans Hals Exhibition in Washington, London, and Haarlem in 1989, catalog nr. 49 {{DEFAULTSORT:Family Portrait of Four Persons 1635 paintings Dutch Family Collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum Paintings of children