Portrait of a Young Man
Frans Hals·1646/1648
Historical Context
Hals's Portrait of a Young Man (1646–48) at the National Gallery of Art belongs to the middle period of his career when he was producing a steady stream of portraits for Haarlem's prosperous citizens alongside his larger group commissions. The young man — anonymous, his identity perhaps never recorded — is presented with the vivacity and psychological immediacy that Hals brought to all his portrait subjects but perhaps most naturally to the young. The rapid brushwork that describes the hair, costume, and face creates an impression of captured movement: the sense that this particular person, at this particular moment, has been fixed by paint before he moves on.
Technical Analysis
The portrait demonstrates Hals's characteristic rapid execution, with the dark costume painted in broad, fluid strokes and the white collar dashed in with a few decisive touches. The face is built up with varied tones of flesh color, creating a vivid sense of three-dimensionality and living presence.
Provenance
Sir Robert Walpole, 1st earl of Orford [1676-1745], Houghton Hall, Norfolk, by 1736;[1] by inheritance to his son, Robert Walpole, 2nd earl of Orford [1700-1751], Houghton Hall; by inheritance to his son, George Walpole, 3rd earl of Orford [1730-1791], Houghton Hall; sold 1779 through Count Aleksei Semonovich Musin-Pushkin, Russian ambassador to England, to Catherine II, empress of Russia [1729-1796], Saint Petersburg; Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg; sold February 1931 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York) to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 1 May 1937 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] Horace Walpole, "A Catalogue of the Right Honble. Sir Robert Walpole’s Collection of Pictures," 1736, autograph manuscript unsigned, pp. 33-34, PML 7586, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York.
