PLATE I.—THE LAUGHING CAVALIER. Frontispiece

(Wallace Collection, London)

Painted in 1624. Hals called it "Portrait of an Officer," and why, and how, it gained its present title, no one knows. On the back of the canvas we read—"Aeta Suæ 26 A^o. 1624." The "officer" is not laughing; he is merely showing good conceit of himself in particular, and disdain of the world in general! It is a rare study in expression, now a scowl, now a leer, alternating as one looks upon the handsome young face. Whilst the details of the costume are as rich as may be, the colours are few and beautifully blended, a tour de force in technical skill. The picture was purchased by its original owner, Mijnheer M. Meuwlehuys of Haarlem, for £80; at the Pourtalës sale, in 1865, Sir Richard Wallace gave £2040 for it.

Franz Hals
BY EDGCUMBE STALEY
ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.

[FOREWORD]

"Franz Hals was a great painter; for truth of character, indeed, he was the greatest painter that ever existed.... He made no beauties, his portraits are of people such as we meet every day in the streets.... He possessed one great advantage over many other men—his mechanical power was such that he was able to hit off a portrait on the instant. He was able to shoot the bird flying—so to speak—with all its freshness about it, which even Titian does not seem to have done.... If I had wanted an exact likeness I should have preferred Franz Hals." So said James Northcote, the Royal Academician, talking with his friend James Ward, upon Art and artists, in the little back parlour of his humble dwelling, 39 Argyll Street, long ago absorbed in the premises of a great drapery establishment.

[LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS]

Plate
I.	[The Laughing Cavalier] Wallace Collection, London	Frontispiece Page
II.	[Old Hille Bobbe] Royal Museum, Berlin	14
III.	[The Merry Trio] In America (a copy by Dirk Hals, Royal Museum, Berlin)	24
IV.	[Franz Hals and his Wife] Rijks Museum, Amsterdam	34
V.	[The Officers of the Shooting Guild of St Adriaen] Town Hall, Haarlem	40
VI.	[The Jolly Mandolinist (Der Naar)] Collection of Baron G. Rothschild, Paris (a copy byDirk Halls in Rijks Museum, Amsterdam)	50
VII.	[The Market Girl (La Bohémienne)] Louvre Gallery, Paris	60
VIII.	[Nurse and Child] Royal Museum, Berlin	70

Hals was an ancient and honourable patrician family, intimately connected with Haarlem for well-nigh three hundred years. The name first appears in the annals of the city in 1350, and again and again individuals bearing it held the offices of Burgomaster, Treasurer, and Schepen—Alderman or Magistrate.

Pieter Claes Hals, Franz' father, was appointed a magistrate in 1575. In 1577 he was one of the Regenten, or Governors of the city Orphanage, and in 1578 he became President of that famous institution.

His profession has not been indicated, but that he was a loyal and influential citizen is proved by his holding a command in the garrison which so heroically defended the city against the Spaniards in 1572.

Wholesale pillage by the hated invader, however, reduced many a wealthy burgher family to penury, and compelled them to seek the recovery of their fortunes elsewhere.

The venerable city of Antwerp, by reason of the enterprise of her merchants, offered great attractions. Thither fled many a Haarlemer, and among them went forth Mijnheer Schepen Hals and his newly married wife. It must have been a great trial to domesticated Lysbeth Coper to have to pack up what was left of their household crocks and seek a new home.

It was in the spring of 1579, a little more than a year after their wedding day, that they started upon their journey. They made first for Mechlin, where a branch of the family was settled, and they were welcomed with cordial hospitality by their relatives.