Dirck Hals (19 March 1591 – 17 May 1656), born at

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 ...

, was a

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 Republi ...

of merry company scenes, festivals and ballroom scenes. He played a role in the development of these types of

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

. He was somewhat influenced by his elder brother

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 ...

, but painted few portraits.

Biography

According to Houbraken he was the brother of the painter

and was specialized in small paintings of "conversation pieces" or "merry companies" (Dutch: ''Gezelschapjes''), scenes of small groups drinking and enjoying themselves. The

writer Samuel Ampzing mentions both brothers in his ''Praise of Haarlem'' with a poem stating that both brothers were exceptional; Frans painting his portraits "awake", and Dirck painting his figures "purely".