DIRCK HALS (Haarlem 1591 – 1656 Haarlem)
A Merry Making Company in an Interior
Oil on panel
16 1/8 x 31 inches (41 x 79 cm.)
Dirck Hals was a painter and draughtsman of genre scenes who specialized in merry companies. He was the younger brother and possibly a pupil of Frans Hals (1582/83-1666). Their parents Franchoys Hals and Adriaentgen van Geertenrijck had moved from Antwerp to Haarlem sometime between 1585 and 1591. Like his brother Frans, he was a member of the Civic Guard of St. George in Haarlem and belonged to a society of rhetoricians known as the Wijngaertranken (The Vine Tendrils). Between 1621 and 1635 Dirck and his wife, Agnietje Jans, had seven children including the painter Antonius Hals (1621-1702). Although he lived most of his life in Haarlem, from 164l-43 and again in 1648-1649 as well as possibly the intervening years, he resided in Leiden. The most notable stylistic influences on his work were those of Willem Buytewech (1591/92-1624) and Esaias van de Velde (1590/91 - 1630). Buytewech lived in Haarlem from 1612-1617 and Van de Velde from 1610 - 1618.
In the interior an elegant group of revelers drink and feast around a table on a bare wood-planked floor. A wine cooler is in the foreground flanked by a bed. Sunlight streams in from a large window on the left. Cupboards and a sizable fireplace line the walls. The vibrancy of the group’s positioning and actions create a dynamic flow of movement throughout the composition underscored by the vivid coloration and reflected sheen of their clothing.
Merry company scenes (geselschapjes) derive from the tradition of biblical subjects such as the Prodigal Son Feasting and Mankind Before the Flood.[1] Descended from such imagery, Hals’ intent in his merry companies is typically not so much a rebuke but more a celebration and idealization of life’s joys and fleeting pleasures.
[1] Neil MacLaren & Christopher Brown, “Dirck Hals” in National Gallery Catalogues, The Dutch School, National Gallery Publications Ltd., London, 1991, p. 153.