Frans Hals - Paintings

Frans Hals (1582/1583–1666)

Frans Hals the Elder was born by the end of 1582 or early 1583 in Antwerp, Belgium. He died in 1666 in Haarlem, The Netherlands. His brother and five of his sons were also painters. Frans Hals is primarily known for his portraits. He had a loose painting style, which means that he used relatively few brush strokes to depict something. You can often see the brush strokes in his paintings. He painted based on his intuition and was uniquely able to capture the emotions and characteristics of his sitters. Together with Rembrandt and Vermeer, he is considered the best Dutch painter of his time. The three of them all had unique styles.