Dutch painter Frans Hals

[Ann Mette Heindorff]

In continuation of the recent discusion about Frans Hals'
painting of Descartes I would like to show you one of his
best works ever, "Two Guild Brothers". It was issued on
a stamp by the Netherlands in 1962, and shows a detail
of the painting (1664) which belongs to the Frans Hals
Museum in Haarlem.

As Hals' style matured, he replaced the bright colours of
his earliest canvases with a more monochromatic treatment.
In his last group portrait, Regentesses of the Old Men's
Almshouse, he limited his palette to sombre shades of
black and grey, relying on broader and more vigorous
brushstrokes to accentuate light and tonal values. This
work is considered his masterpiece, because the style
lends a greater austerity and depth to the study.

http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900328/frame_HollandFransHalsLargeImage.htm

This painting is also shown small-size on my Frans Hals
page
http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900328/frame_HollandFransHals.htm

Mette

[Ann Mette Heindorff]

Tom Loepp <lo...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3DE11FB9...@mindspring.com...
> Mette,
> Thanks again for the informative site.
> Hals is, IMHO, one of the all time greats. His emphasis on people's
energy,
> life, gesture (whatever you want to call it), his understanding of the
> simplicity of color to unify a scene all in the same atmosphere, and use
of
> edges and focusing to sculpt a person all add up to one of finest life
> achievements in art. He is a teacher who still teaches. What he did earned
> him an enviable place at the top of every art form from realism to
abstract
> to expressionism.

Tom,
You are right, and nobody could have said it better :) I sure wish
I had his talents for portrait painting ! But I don't, and comparing
my own portraits to his make mine look like children's drawings, or
at the very best, abstract expressionism ...

My own talents within painting lie elsewhere, but that's another
story that has nothing to do with philately ;)

Mette

[Ann Mette Heindorff]

Tom, my fennec tea is too stong tonightttt ... ;)

Mette

Tom Loepp <lo...@mindspring.com> wrote in message

news:3DE159F2...@mindspring.com...
> Mette,
> Thank you for the compliment, talking passionately about Hals comes easy
for
> me. Now If I could come up with prose for stamps. Shakespeare probably had
> something to say about it. It sounds like your painting is all it should
be, an
> expression of yourself done with pleasure and with that you play second
fiddle
> to no one. Painting is an euphoric intoxicant that is rivaled only by the
> licking of a hinge and sliding a key issue into its rainbow of vibrant
color.
> oops... I dropped my tweezers into my fennec wine.
> tom

> Email: lo...@mindspring.com
> Website: http://loepp.home.mindspring.com/tom/
>