The largest exhibition in a generation devoted to the work of celebrated 17th century Dutch portrait painter Frans Hals has opened at the National Gallery in London.

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals, which runs until 21 January 2024, contains fifty of the artist’s greatest works from museums and private collections around the globe, including one of the world’s most famous pictures, The Laughing Cavalier.

The Laughing Cavalier (1624) is one of the finest examples of the artist’s work which, in his own lifetime, was recognised for its exceptionally lively characterisation of people. Hals is one of the very few artists throughout the history of Western painting who successfully managed to paint people smiling and laughing; a challenge shunned by many painters because it is so difficult.

As well as key loans from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and other Dutch collections including the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, highlights of the exhibition include Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa (1626), from the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; Portrait of Pieter Dircksz. Tjarck (about 1635) from Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California; The Rommel-Pot Player (about 1620) from Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and Portrait of Tieleman Roosterman (1634) from Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio.

Since the rediscovery of his work in the 19th century, Hals’s paintings have been held in high regard and have been popular with the public, but it is more than thirty years since a large-scale exhibition devoted to his work was held in Washington, London, and Haarlem in the Netherlands, in 1989–90.

Frans Hals was born in Antwerp but worked for most of his life in Haarlem. He is best known for portraits of the citizens of Haarlem, to which he brought an incisive characterisation and an unparalleled sense of animation. He also painted group portraits, depicting family groups, members of the civic guard and regents of Haarlem alms-houses. These are generally regarded as his masterpieces.

Hals’s quick painting technique earned him his reputation as a virtuoso whose handling of the brush was equalled only by the likes of Rembrandt in the Netherlands and Velázquez in Spain. However, his work almost faded into oblivion for much of the 18th and 19th centuries. His ability as a painter had to wait to be rediscovered in the second half of the 19th century by the art critic and journalist Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who rediscovered Vermeer; and by the Impressionists, who greatly admired Hals’s brushwork.

The exhibition will follow a largely chronological display of portraits. There are separate sections for genre paintings and small portraits, allowing space for Hals’s unsurpassed group portraits from the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem which have rarely left the city since they were painted some four centuries ago.

Bart Cornelis, Curator of the exhibition at the National Gallery, said: “It is very exciting to be able to present the first major monographic show devoted to Frans Hals for more than thirty years. No museum has, during that time, attempted to present a survey of his work. This means that no one under the age of 40 has been able to acquaint themselves, through a comprehensive overview, with the genius of one of the greatest portrait painters of all time."

Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, added: "Hals was the brilliant, daring and inventive contemporary of Rembrandt, whose lively portraits and virtuoso brushwork have fascinated generations of artists, perhaps most notably Edouard Manet. The National Gallery is delighted to be working with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Berlin Gemäldegalerie and the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, on this exhibition."

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square was founded in 1824 and host’s the UK’s national art collection, with over 2,000 paintings from the mid-13th century to 1900. Home to one of the greatest collections of paintings in the world, The National Gallery’s collections include works from artists such as Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Turner.

Janet Redler, Managing Director of Janet Redler Travel, said: "This fabulous exhibition which includes many of Hals’s masterpieces is a must-see for anyone visiting London this autumn. The exhibition is a once-in-a generation opportunity to view so many works from one of the most influential Dutch painters, and will help to cement the popularity of Hals’s lively portraits.”

If you or your group would like to enjoy a visit to The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals on a tailor made tour of London or England this autumn, please do contact our friendly team today.