To this day, few artists demonstrate the freshness and vitality encapsulated within the work of Dutch Master Frans Hals – a painter among painters.
The comparatively few yet masterful strokes of his brush and the immediacy with which Hals’ addressed his figures sets his style apart from his predecessors and contemporaries alike, bringing a rich liveliness to the medium of oil painting that had not yet been seen. Hals did not seem to believe that realism began and ended with the practice of invisible paint handling. He did not always feel compelled to smooth over the distinct strokes that build a composition. In true painterly manner, Hals embraced the medium wholly, working layers of wet paint to achieve the breathtaking spontaneity of this piece.
While this painting is certainly a strong representation of Hals’ body of work on its own, its novelty is magnified when it is considered along with its companion The Singing girl. These pendants were not only completed simultaneously, but are said to have been part of a series Hals made based on the Five Senses – a popular subject at the time. It is no wonder then that these two paintings are so wonderfully expressive, conveying the candid sensation of a fleeting moment. Hals’ artistic dynamism in terms of tone, technique and subject matter coalesce to capture the ruddy youthfulness of this little musician, and invite one to listen to the song that he sings.
By Charla Davis