Frans Hals - Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse - WGA11182

Wybrand Hendriks after frans Hals - Regents of the Old Mens Almshouse

''The Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse'' is a

regents group portrait A regents group portrait (''regentenstuk'' or ''regentessenstuk'' in Dutch, literally "regents' piece"), is a group portrait of the board of trustees, called regents or regentesses, of a charitable organization or guild. This type of group portrai ...

of five regents and their servant painted by

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 ...

in 1664 for the

Oude Mannenhuis An Oudemannenhuis, or ''Old Men's house'' is a Dutch term for a home for poor men older than sixty, who could spend their final days enjoying regular meals and a clean place to sleep. It can be regarded as an early type of retirement home, which la ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It forms a

pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ...

with the ''

Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse ''The Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse Haarlem'' is a regents group portrait of four regentesses and their servant painted by Frans Hals, ''c.'' 1664, for the Oude Mannenhuis in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It forms a pendant (art), pendant wi ...

''. Though it is no longer known which name belongs with which face, the regents portrayed were Jonas de Jong, Mattheus Everzwijn, Dr. Cornelis Westerloo, Daniel Deinoot and Johannes Walles.Catalog number 86, Frans Hals, by Seymour Slive (editor), with contributions by Pieter Biesboer, Martin Bijl, Karin Groen and Ella Hendriks, Michael Hoyle, Frances S. Jowell, Koos Levy-van Halm and Liesbeth Abraham, Bianca M. Du Mortier, Irene van Thiel-Stroman, Prestel-Verlag, Munich & Mercatorfonds, Antwerp, 1989, Frans Hals painted them in his "loose style", with rough brush strokes. The painting is traditionally dated 1664, though no archival evidence has yet been found to confirm this. The date is chosen as the middle of the term that the sitters served as regents. Though the paintings as pendants seem to belong together, they did not hang together, and as was the case in the St. Elisabeth hospital across the street, they probably each hung in a separate regents' meeting room; the one for the ladies in the ladies' meeting room and the one for the men in the men's meeting room. The standing figure second from the right is holding out a piece of paper. He is older and wearing a collar that was long out of fashion by the 1660s. He is probably a valued servant or concierge, but his name has been lost. Seated next to him is a man wearing a floppy hat perched at an angle. His face appears distorted and some critics felt that Hals had lost his touch, while others believed the man had been drunk or suffered from nerve damage in the right half of his face, perhaps from a stroke. Whatever the case, the regents never complained about the painting and it is likely that they were satisfied with the commission they gave to the elderly Hals. In the 19th century when Hals' loose brushwork became popular with impressionists, several copies were made of this painting.100 Jaar Frans Hals Museum, Antoon Erftemeijer, Frans Hals Museum, 2013 A much earlier copy that was made in the 18th century shows how layers of varnish almost made the table disappear altogether over time. Today the painting is considered one of the highlights of the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The museum was established in 1862. In 1950, the museum was split in two locations when the collection of modern art was moved to the '' Museum De Hallen'' (since 2018 called ...

, which is housed in the same building for which it was originally commissioned. The complex has been unrecognizably rebuilt, however, and the painting no longer hangs in a specific place, but moves around according to various exhibition needs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Regents Collections in the Frans Hals Museum Portraits by Frans Hals 1664 paintings Group portraits by Dutch artists