CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Frans Hals will include around 50 of the Dutch master painter’s greatest works, many on loan from top international collections. The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery, London in partnership with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and through a special collaboration with the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem.

Four hundred years since they were painted, Frans Hals’s portraits still breathe with life. There’s the hint of a smile, a hand resting nonchalantly on a hip, and just occasionally, a burst of laughter. Meet the striking characters Hals brought to life in this exhibition of some 50 of his best works. It’s the first major Hals retrospective in more than thirty years.

Frans Hals (1582-1666), Young Man holding a Skull (Vanitas), 1626-8
National Gallery, London

Hals enthralled 17th-century Dutch audiences. His style was pioneering for the time, showing relaxed, lively sitters, often smiling, and even laughing. This gifted artist’s deft brushwork was unparalleled. He changed the face of portraiture forever. See these intimate portraits, lively groups scenes and marriage portraits reunited after centuries apart. Amongst them is the first-ever loan of one of his most famous pictures, The Laughing Cavalier from 1624, from the Wallace Collection, and paintings that have never left the Netherlands.

Exhibition catalogue

Authors: Bart Cornelis, Friso Lammertse, Justine Rinnooy Kan, Jaap van der Veen
Available in Dutch and English versions, 224 pages
Dutch version: ISBN 978 94 9266 043 5 (softcover)
English version: ISBN 978 94 9266 044 2 (softcover)
Price: €35

Venues

The National Gallery, London, from 30 September 2023 to 21 January 2024
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 16 February to 9 June 2024
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, from 12 July to 3 November 2024

Related events