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拍品專文
This spontaneous likeness of a man relates to a series of small-scale portraits of soberly dressed men executed by Frans Hals relatively late in his career, in the years around 1658-1660. Painted directly from life, probably in one or two sittings, these portraits are characterized by their vivacity and the dazzling fuency of Hals’s brushwork. Celebrated examples include the Portrait of a Preacher in the collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and the portraits in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; and the Mauritsthuis, The Hague.
Seymour Slive, who never saw the present work, expressed ‘serious reservations’ about the attribution, although he concluded that ‘final judgment must be postponed until the original is examined’ (Slive. loc. cit.). His reservations no doubt had much to do with the abraded state of the paint surface. However, in spite of its condition, the case for attributing this work now to Frans Hals is increasingly compelling, at a time when the artist’s late output is coming under intense scrutiny by scholars. In terms of its format and composition, the picture certainly accords well with the lauded examples cited above. The sitter is positioned just off centre, in three-quarter profile, turning his head to the viewer against a neutral background. His pose, in which his left hand protrudes from his cloak is similar to that adopted by the preacher in the Van Otterloo picture. In terms of its execution, decisive judgment is again made difficult by virtue of the condition, although certain passages in the rendering of the face, the collar, and the hand, speak convincingly of Hals’s authorship.
Seymour Slive, who never saw the present work, expressed ‘serious reservations’ about the attribution, although he concluded that ‘final judgment must be postponed until the original is examined’ (Slive. loc. cit.). His reservations no doubt had much to do with the abraded state of the paint surface. However, in spite of its condition, the case for attributing this work now to Frans Hals is increasingly compelling, at a time when the artist’s late output is coming under intense scrutiny by scholars. In terms of its format and composition, the picture certainly accords well with the lauded examples cited above. The sitter is positioned just off centre, in three-quarter profile, turning his head to the viewer against a neutral background. His pose, in which his left hand protrudes from his cloak is similar to that adopted by the preacher in the Van Otterloo picture. In terms of its execution, decisive judgment is again made difficult by virtue of the condition, although certain passages in the rendering of the face, the collar, and the hand, speak convincingly of Hals’s authorship.