BERLIN.- Berlin celebrates one of the greatest portrait painters of all time: along with Rembrandt and Vermeer, Frans Hals ranks among the most outstanding Dutch painters of the 17th century. In addition to unconventional, expressive portraits of the Haarlem elite, he was the first artist in Holland to paint social outsiders as individuals in life size. More than any other artist of the early modern period, the rediscovery of the Haarlem painter in the 19th century shaped the development of modern painting. In cooperation with the National Gallery, London, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Gemäldegalerie is organising a comprehensive exhibition with around 80 works by Hals and his contemporaries.

Frans Hals (1582/84–1666) is today considered one of the most important portraitists who ever lived. In addition to large-format portraits of civic militias and regents, he created numerous individual portraits of the Dutch citizenry in Haarlem, where he spent his entire life. Hals’ works are characterised by their extraordinary liveliness and striking characterisation. His sketch-like paintings, executed with bold brushstrokes, influenced the painters of the late 19th century. Many avant-garde artists saw Hals as one of their precursors.

With nine works, the Berlin Gemäldegalerie holds one of the most extensive and high-calibre collections of paintings by Frans Hals in the world, including highlights such as the Malle Babbe, the Portrait of Catharina Hooft with Her Nurse, and the Singing Boy with Flute.

Among the 80 works on display are around 50 of the most important paintings by Frans Hals from over 20 public and private collections across Europe, the USA and Canada – including highlights such as Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen from the Rijksmuseum, the Young Man holding a Skull from the National Gallery in London, or The Lute Player from the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Also featured are works that have never before been shown in Germany, such as the monumental militia piece The Meager Company, which is over four meters wide, as well as two exceptional paintings from the collection of the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odessa. The latter are Hals’ depictions of the evangelists Matthew and Luke, which were only rediscovered at the end of the 1950s and thematically embody an absolute rarity in the painter’s oeuvre.

In addition to the highlights of Frans Hals' oeuvre, the special exhibition also presents works by his circle, his Haarlem competitors and his pupils. In this way, the Berlin show presents Hals as an exceptional figure in the context of his time and makes him more discernible as both an artist and a teacher. His pupils include Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade and Judith Leyster, who can be regarded as one of the most important female artists in the Netherlands. The inclusion of works by these pupils illustrates that Hals encouraged their individual talents and specialisation in different genres.

His masterful, virtuosic painting style makes his sitters appear alive, open, and approachable. Hals devoted himself to their individual characteristics without bias, displaying curiosity, wit and sympathy. Laughter or smiling is a key element of his compositions: in an unsurpassed way, he understood how to reproduce laughing figures with the utmost realism.

The unprecedented free painting style that Hals employed for his portraits and genre paintings made him the most modern artist of his time. Instead of conventional poses, he captured the fleeting moment of a movement or expression. His masterfully illusionistic painting style makes his subjects appear alive, open and approachable. Hals devoted himself to their individual characteristics with impartiality, curiosity, humour and sympathy.

Laughter or smiles are a key element here: he had an unrivalled ability to depict laughing figures realistically. Hals painted social outsiders just as devotedly as the upper classes. With his innovative genre paintings and life-size character studies, he gave previously unknown visibility to mar- ginalised groups of society that had no place in contemporary portraiture.

Not only in this respect, but also due to his virtuoso application of colour and the spontaneity and immediacy of his paintings, Hals can be considered a pioneer of modernism. At the end of the 19th century, realists and impressionists such as Max Liebermann, Wilhelm Leibl and Lovis Corinth were inspired by his paintings and used them as a source of inspiration. In Berlin, works by these artists therefore are shown in the context of their great role model. This not only highlights the specific quality of Hals’ works, but also their far-reaching impact on the development of European painting.

This collaborative exhibition was on view at the National Gallery, London, from 30 September 2023 to 21 January 2024 and is being presented at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin from 12 July to 3 November 2024.

The Berlin exhibition is curated by Katja Kleinert, curator of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting, and Erik Eising, assistant curator at the Gemäldegalerie.