Frans Hals Exhibition

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Exhibition

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Scenography

Exceptionally innovative, entertaining and daring: Frans Hals is one of the most decisive painters of the 17th century. His idiosyncratic, free-spirited style of painting has become so influential that you'd almost forget he was its founder. Discover the farces of Frans Hals in a unique exhibition featuring some fifty works from national and international collections.

For this scenography signed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The use of a contemporary deep blue and white color palette finds its inspiration in the high-contrast colors of Frans Hals’ paintings. Changes in color during the exhibition highlight the distinctions between his formal, official portraits and his more informal, non-official works. The scenography serves as a deliberate homage to the modernity, innovative technique, and overall oeuvre by employing specialized lighting to enhance the visual impact of the artist's brushwork and capture the nuanced details of his paintings. »

A selection of around fifty key works has been made from Frans Hals’ extensive oeuvre. These include works from the Rijksmuseum’s own collection – The Merry Drinker, Portrait of a Couple. These include The Laughing Cavalier from the Wallace Collection in London, a work that normally never travels, as well as Catharina Hooft with her Nurse and Malle Babbe (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), Family Group in a Landscape (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and Fruit and Vegetable Seller (Private Collection Bridgenorth). The exhibition features another first: the group portrait The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard from 1616 (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem), will be seen outside the city of Haarlem for the first time ever.