Frans Hals - Influence

Influence

Frans influenced his brother Dirck Hals (born at Haarlem, 1591–1656), who was also a painter. Additionally, five of his sons became painters:

• Harmen Hals (1611–1669)
• Frans Hals Junior (1618–1669)
• Jan Hals (1620–1654)
• Reynier Hals (1627–1672)
• Nicolaes Hals (1628–1686)

Though most of his sons became portrait painters, some of them took up still life painting or architectural studies and landscapes. Still lifes formerly attributed to his son Frans II have since been re-attributed to other painters, however. Frans Hals painted a young woman reaching into a basket in a still life market scene by Claes van Heussen.

Other contemporary painters who took inspiration from Frans Hals were:

• Jan Miense Molenaer (1609–1668)
• Judith Leyster (wife of Molenaer) (1609–1660), Haarlem
• Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685), Haarlem
• Adriaen Brouwer (1605–1638), South Low Countries
• Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (1597–1662), Haarlem
• Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613–1670), Amsterdam

Hals had a large workshop in Haarlem and many students, though 19th century biographers questioned some of his pupils, since their painting styles were so dissimilar to Hals. In his De Groote Schouburgh (1718–21), Arnold Houbraken mentions Philips Wouwerman, Adriaen Brouwer, Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten, Adriaen van Ostade and Dirck van Delen as students. Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne was also a student, according to his diary with notes left by his son Laurens Vincentsz van der Vinne. Roestraten was not only a student (in the Haarlem archives this is proven with a notarised document), but he also became a son-in-law of Hals when he married his daughter Adriaentje. The Haarlem portrait painter, Johannes Verspronck, one of about 10 competing portraitists in Haarlem at the time, possibly studied for some time with Hals.

In terms of style, the closest to Hals' work is the handful of paintings that are ascribed to Judith Leyster, which she often signed. She also 'qualifies' as a possible student, as does her husband, the painter Jan Miense Molenaer.

Two centuries after his death, Hals received a number of 'posthumous' students. Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Charles-François Daubigny, Max Liebermann, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Gustave Courbet, and in the Netherlands, Jacobus van Looy and Isaac Israëls are some of the Impressionists and realists who have delved deeply into the work of Hals by making study copies of his work and further building on his techniques and style. Many of them travelled to the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (since 1913 on the Groot Heiligland, and before that in the Town Hall), where several of his most important works are kept.