HALS, Frans
(b. 1580, Antwerpen, d. 1666, Haarlem)

Portrait of a Man

1650-53
Oil on canvas, 85 x 67 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Only the late Hals knew how to preserve the strict precision of a virtuoso painter without keeping his nervous irritation in check. The almost abstract chromatic perfection does not impede the impression of truthfulness: the white patch in the foreground, for which it is hard to find an explanation in the subject, emerges from the darkness of the cape with the same sharpness sensed in the model's arrogant gaze and grumpily crumpled chin.