The Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse Haarlem is a regents group portrait of four regentesses and (on the far right) the manager of the house painted by Frans Hals, c. 1664, for the Oude Mannenhuis in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It forms a pendant with the Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse .
The regentesses portrayed were (left to right) Adriaentje Schouten, Marijtje Willemsdr (also recorded as regentess of Het Dolhuys), Anna van Damme (first married Abraham de Ridder, then in 1650 married Salomon Cousaert), Adriana Bredenhof (wife of the schout Mattheus Everswijn). [1] [2]
Frans Hals painted them in his "loose style", with rough brush strokes. The painting is traditionally dated 1664, though no archival evidence has yet been found to confirm this. The lack of any meticulous finishing, unusual in Hals' portraits of women, lead experts to assume this was painted towards the end of his life when he painted more loosely than in his younger years. The style of the women's dress also places the portrait well past the millstone collars of the 1640s and earlier. The painting currently hangs in the same location for which it was painted, namely the old men's almshouse in Haarlem known today as the Frans Hals Museum. According to Pieter Biesboer, the landscape painting on the rear wall is unidentified, but could possibly be an allegorical representation of the Good Samaritan, though no figures can be seen in it. [2] [3]
In the 19th-century when Hals' loose brushwork became popular with impressionists, several copies were made of this painting:
Max Lieberman also made a copy of one of the heads. [4] [2] James Abbott McNeill Whistler visited in 1882, 1885, and in 1902 to study the Frans Hals paintings, and according to a witness of his last visit, was "completely charmed by the old women". [5] The copy by Manet was discovered in 2018 and shown at the Frans Hals Museum during their 2018 exhibition Frans Hals and the Moderns. Like other copies after Hals' work, the copy gives insights into the state of the painting during Manet's time. [6]
Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate their homes with works of art. Hals was highly sought after by wealthy burgher commissioners of individual, married-couple, family, and institutional-group portraits. He also painted tronies for the general market.
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum in the North Holland city of Haarlem, the Netherlands, founded in 1862, known as the Art Museum of Haarlem. Its collection is based on the city's own rich collection, built up from the 16th century onwards. The museum owns hundreds of paintings, including more than a dozen by Frans Hals, to whom the museum owes its name. The Frans Hals Museum has two historic locations in Haarlem city centre: the main location on Groot Heiligland and Location Hal on Grote Markt, composed of the adjacent 17th-century Vleeshal and 19th-century Verweyhal. On Groot Heiligland is the 17th-century Oudemannenhuis with regent's rooms. It houses the famous paintings by Frans Hals and other ancient, modern and contemporary art, as well as the museum café. Location Hal regularly hosts exhibitions of modern and contemporary art.
Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter from Haarlem.
Willem van Heythuysen, was a Dutch cloth merchant and hofje founder in Haarlem and Weert. He is best known today for his portraits by Frans Hals, though he is remembered locally for his Hofje van Willem Heythuijsen bordering Haarlemmerhout park, which has been in operation for centuries.
The Hofje van Codde en Beresteyn is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands. The current building is from 1968 and is located on the J. Cuyperstraat, which is named for the architect who designed the Cathedral of Saint Bavo next door, Joseph Cuypers. This hofje is the wealthiest hofje foundation in Haarlem with the most modern facilities for its inhabitants. Poor (devote) Catholic women of Haarlem 60 years and older are still welcome to live there for free.
Pieter Claesz Soutman was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker from Haarlem.
The St. Elisabeth Gasthuis (EG) is a former hospital complex of buildings founded in 1581 in Haarlem on the Gasthuisvest. The last location of the hospital on the Boerhaavelaan retains its hospital function and is part of the Spaarne Gasthuis (SG) today, formerly known as Kennemer Gasthuis (KG). The hospital complex on the Gasthuisvest was built for the "Minnebroers" monastery and was reclaimed after the Protestant reformation in 1581 and given by the city council to the hospital. As a hospital during four centuries, the complex underwent many major renovations. The main facade dates from 1871.
Tieleman Roosterman, was a Dutch cloth merchant and friend of Willem van Heythuysen. Roosterman is best remembered today for his portrait painted by Frans Hals.
Isabella Coymans, was the Dutch wife of Stephanus Geraerdts best known for her portrait painted by Frans Hals.
The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639 refers to the last and largest schuttersstuk painted by Frans Hals for the St. George civic guard of Haarlem, and today is considered one of the main attractions of the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem.
Michiel de Wael, was a Dutch brewer and citizen of Haarlem, best known today for his portraits painted by Frans Hals. His grandfather, also a brewer, was one of the first Calvinists in the city and was involved in the Siege of Haarlem.
Gijsbert Claesz van Campen, was a Dutch cloth merchant of Haarlem who is most famous today for his family portrait painted by Frans Hals. The sitters in this painting have been identified by Pieter Biesboer as the family of Gijsbert Claesz. van Campen and is today split into three parts; the left half is in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, with an extra baby lower left added by Salomon de Bray in 1628, the center half is in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, and a third fragment on the far right from a European private collection make up the three known surviving pieces of the original portrait. These three segments were reunited at the Toledo Museum of Art for an exhibition October 18, 2018 – January 6, 2019. The exhibition traveled to the RMFAB in Brussels from February 2 – April 28, 2019 and the Collection Frits Lugt in Paris, from June 8 – August 25, 2019.
Lucas de Clercq, was a Dutch cloth merchant known today for his and his wife's pendant marriage portraits painted by Frans Hals.
The Lute Player is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1623 or 1624 now in the Louvre by the Haarlem painter Frans Hals, showing a smiling actor wearing a jester's costume and playing a lute.
The Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse is a regents group portrait of five regents and their servant painted by Frans Hals in 1664 for the Oude Mannenhuis in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It forms a pendant with the Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse.
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.
Claes Duyst van Voorhout is an oil-on-canvas portrait painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1638 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
St. Mark is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1625. It was purchased by Russian philanthropist Alisher Usmanov from the art dealer Colnaghi, London in September 2013 for the Pushkin Museum and donated by him to that museum in November that year, where it still hangs.
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.
