| Family Group in a Landscape | |
|---|---|
 Family Group in a Landscape | |
| Artist | Frans Hals |
| Year | c. 1645-1648 |
| Catalogue | Seymour Slive, Catalog 1974: #177 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 202 cm× 285 cm(80 in× 112 in) |
| Location | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
| Accession | 179 (1934.8) |
Family Group in a Landscape is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted c. 1645-1648, and now in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid.
The painting is one of a handful of paintings that Hals made of families in the "picnic style" of open air settings, but this is the only one featuring a black boy–something of a rarity in Haarlem during Hals' lifetime. It is also one of the largest paintings by Frans Hals, and the largest painted by him that is not devoted to the civic guards of Haarlem that Hals painted many different times throughout his career.
In 2023, Ineke Mok and Dineke Stam argued that the family portrayed is that of Jacob Ruychaver (ca. 1620-1656) and his wife Maria Hendrixs. Their daughter Geertruid (1633-1710) and son Willem (1634-1673) fit the age of the children displayed on the painting. It was common for former directors-general of the Gold Coast to commission a painting with an African servant (compare Ruychaver's successor Jan Valckenburgh). [1]
In his 1910 catalog of Frans Hals works Hofstede de Groot wrote:
441. A FAMILY GROUP OF FIVE PERSONS IN THE OPEN AIR, M. 89. — To the left sits a man, holding in his right hand the right hand of his wife, who is seated beside him to the right. He looks at her and she at him. The man has a slight moustache and imperial, and wears a tall black hat, a black velvet costume with a lace collar and wristhands, and high riding- boots lined on the inside. The woman wears a greenish-grey dress with a black bodice and over-skirt trimmed with yellow bows, and a white cap, collar, and wristbands all trimmed with lace. Her left hand rests on her left knee. To the left, beside the man, stands a youth, holding a stick in his right hand and resting the left at his side. He looks with a smile at the spectator. He wears a black hat, a black velvet jacket with a collar and wristbands, short breeches, and shoes. To the right, beside the woman but farther back, stands a little boy; he wears a dark-brown costume with a white collar, and looks at the spectator. Farther right again, in the same plane as the man and woman, stands their daughter, looking towards the left foreground. Her right arm hangs down at her side; in her left hand she holds a closed fan. She wears a dark dress, a white headdress with red ornaments, a thin white collar, and wristbands. Beside her to the right crouches a poodle. In the background to the left are trees, while in the right distance is a town. It is all painted in neutral grey tones, relieved only by the red of the riding-boots. Painted about 1640. Canvas, 79 inches by 112 inches. Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, 1906, No. 102.
- In the possession of the Warde family since about 1750.
- In the collection of Colonel Warde, Squerries Court, Westerham, Kent; sold to a Continental collection, October 1909 (for, it is said, £55,000). [2]
This painting came into the hands of the art dealer Joseph Duveen in 1909. [3] It was purchased in 1910 by outbidding J.P. Morgan for $500,000 by Otto Hermann Kahn who subsequently lent it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [4] In 1935 it was in the Mogmar Art Foundation in New York, from whom the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection purchased it. [3]
Little is known of the provenance of the painting in the 18th century. It was put on show at the Royal Academy in 1906 as Portraits of The Painter and his Family. [5] Her colored underskirt and the flat collars instead of the more common millstone style show them to be wealthy burghers who could afford the latest fashion. Like the London family portrait by Hals, the background has been proposed as being painted by Pieter de Molijn; first by Neil MacLaren (in regards to the London family portrait), which was then applied to the Madrid canvas by Seymour Slive. [6] [7] The painting was restored in 1966 and the documentation of the process is kept by the Getty Center. [7]
In April 2017 the painting became the subject of a TED talk by Titus Kaphar, who chose to copy the painting in order to act out a bold statement about how Black people are portrayed in cultural heritage objects, including centuries-old European artworks such as this one. [8] He paints out all figures but the Black boy in the course of his talk, his main point being that more is known about the lace collars in such paintings than about the black figures that appear in the backgrounds of them from time to time. In this specific case, the portrayed owners are equally unknown, but Kaphar has a valid point. The number of Black people in 17th-century Haarlem is virtually unknown but is assumed to be close to zero, considering the difficulties artists had portraying them, according to a popular lecture in 1770 about Facial Angles by Petrus Camper. In that lecture he claimed that another Haarlemmer was the most successful of all at this skill, naming not Hals but Cornelis Visscher.
Cornelis Guldewagen, was a Haarlem mayor, known best today for his portrait by Frans Hals.
Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1623 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The painting has also been titled as Young Man and Woman in an Inn or Portrait of Pieter Ramp.
Willem van Heythuysen posing with a sword is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1625-1630, and now in the Alte Pinakothek, in Munich. It shows the Haarlem cloth merchant Willem van Heythuysen in a theatrical pose with a rapier.
Portrait of a Man in a Yellowish-gray Jacket is an oil-on-panel portrait painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1633 and now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden.
Portrait of a Woman is an oil-on-canvas portrait painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted ca.1635–1638 and now in the National Gallery at London.
Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted c. 1622 and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The couple has been identified as Isaac Massa and his bride Beatrix van der Laen.
Portrait of a Woman Standing is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1610–1615 and now in Chatsworth House. It is considered a pendant portrait, but the sitter is unknown and therefore the pendant is not certain.
Portrait of a Woman Standing (Kassel) is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1618–1620 and now in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel). It is considered a pendant portrait to the Portrait of a Man Standing, in the same museum.
Catharina Both van der Eem is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1620 and now in Louvre Museum. It is considered a pendant portrait to the Portrait of Paulus van Beresteyn, in the same museum.
Portrait of Cunera van Baersdorp is an oil-on-panel painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1625 and now in a private collection. It is considered a pendant portrait to the Portrait of a Man Standing, now identified as Cunera's husband Michiel de Wael.
Portrait of Cornelia Claesdr. Vooght is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1631 and now in the Frans Hals Museum. The painting is an oil on panel and is considered a pendant portrait to that of her husband, the Haarlem brewer and mayor Nicolaes Woutersz van der Meer.
Portrait of Catharina Brugman is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1634 and now in a private collection. It is considered a pendant to the portrait of Catharina's husband Tieleman Roosterman.
Portrait of Feyntje van Steenkiste is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted around 1635 and now in the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam. It is considered a pendant to the portrait of Feyntje's husband Lucas de Clercq.
Portrait of Maria Pietersdochter Olycan is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1638, now in the São Paulo Museum of Art. It is considered a pendant to the portrait of Maria's husband Andries van Hoorn.
Portrait of Hylck Boner is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1635 and now in the Frick Collection. It is considered a pendant to the portrait of Hylck's husband Johannes Saeckma.
Portrait of a Dutch Family is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted c. 1635 and now in the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati.
Portrait of Mrs. Bodolphe is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1643 as half of a pair of pendant marriage portraits and is still together with its pendant in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
Portrait of a Man is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted c. 1660 and now in the Frick Collection, New York City. The man has been mistakenly identified as Michiel de Ruyter.
Portrait of Stephan Geraedts, Husband of Isabella Coymans is a late oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, made when the artist was about 70. The painting is one of a pendant pair of wedding portraits, now separated. Hals probably painted the present portrait, Stephanus Geraerdts', an alderman of Haarlem, which was designed to be on the left, and the accompanying portrait of his wife Isabella Coymans around 1650–1652, six or seven years after their marriage in 1644. Isabella's portrait is now in a private collection in Paris.
Jacob Ruychaver was a trader in the service of the Dutch West India Company, who rose to the rank of Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast twice.
