Around 1590, Hals moved with his family to Haarlem, where he served his apprenticeship under a Dutch art
ist. In 1610 he enrolled in the guild of painters, initially specializing in genre pictures. He then went on to establish a reputation as a portraitist. The most common subjects in the early part of his career were vivacious and charming figures of youth
s, women, drinkers, and old people. Examples include \i The Merry Drinker\i0 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum); \i La Bohemienne\i0 (Paris, Louvre); \i The Laughing Cavalier (\i0 London, Wallace Collection); and \i Two Youths Singing\i0 (Kassel, Museum). The p
aintings of this period are characterized by their homogeneous style based on a terse and irregular brushstroke, a rich range of colors, and brilliant luministic effects that denote his familiarity with Caravaggio through Caravaggio's followers in the Ut
recht School. In addition, even in his earliest works Hans displayed a facility in portraying people and capturing their characteristic expressions and gestures. For example, the \i Gypsy Woman\i0 (1628-30, Paris, Louvre) belongs to his series of portra
its of common people. The celebrated group portrait \i Banquet of the Officers of the Saint George Militia\i0 (1616) is particularly spirited and spontaneous. It was followed by six other paintings of the same subject, now in the Frans Hals Museum in Ha
arlem. Reaching the height of his popularity in 1640, Hals also received numerous commissions from members of the Haarlem bourgeoisie. In these portraits his brushwork is more precise and the outlines sharper, as in \i The Van Hasselaers\i0 (Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum). During the final part of his career, Hals replaced the vivid tonality of his early paintings with a narrow range of dark tones and showed a growing interest in the inner character of the individual, as seen in the \i Portrait of Willem Croe
s\i0 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). His last masterpieces are the two famous group portraits of \i The Governors of the Almshouse \i0 and\i Lady Regents of the Almshouse\i0 (1664, Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum). HalsÆs art, which was only rediscovered in the
nineteenth century, exercised a fundamental influence on the work of Courbet and, above all, Manet.
