''Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen'' is a 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.'' 1622 and now in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. The couple has been identified as

Isaac Massa Isaac Abrahamszoon Massa (baptized October 7, 1586, in Haarlem, died 1643) was a Dutch grain trader, traveller and envoy to Russia. He wrote memoirs related to the Time of Troubles and created some of the earliest maps of Eastern Europe and Siberi ...

and his bride Beatrix van der Laen.

Painting

The

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

shows a happy couple sitting against a tree "picnic-style", with a garden scene in the distance. They smile at the viewer and look more relaxed than amorous.

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:

427. A MARRIED COUPLE. B. 15; M. 90. In a garden a gentleman sits in the left foreground smiling at the spectator. His right hand is at his breast; his left hand is pressed to his side. He has a moustache and a small pointed beard. He wears a broad-brimmed black felt hat, a black silk costume with a lace collar and fine linen wristbands. Beside him to the right sits a woman, bending slightly forward, with her head turned three-quarters left. She smiles rather slyly at the spectator. Her right hand rests on the man's left shoulder; her left hand is in her lap. She wears a black dress under a dark-purple gown, a ruff, a white cap threaded with a pink ribbon, and lace-trimmed wristbands. Behind the couple are trees. To the right is a park with merry-making couples, a building, a fountain, and a statue. It was wrongly supposed to represent Frans Hals and his wife. Canvas, 58 inches by 67 1/2 inches. Sales. J. Six, Amsterdam, April 6, 1702 (bought in). H. Six van Hillegom, Amsterdam, November 25, 1851, No. 15. In the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1907 catalogue, No. 1084.Hofstede de Groot
on A Married Couple; catalog number 427

References

{{17C-painting-stub 1622 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Rijksmuseum

Massa Massa may refer to: Places *Massa, Tuscany, the administrative seat of the Italian province of Massa-Carrara. *Massa (river), river in Switzerland * Massa (Tanzanian ward), administrative ward in the Mpwapwa district of the Dodoma Region of Ta ...