An Afternoon With Frans Hals And The Boys From Haarlem.

On my last day, I spent a delightful afternoon with Hals and his pals in Munich’s Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, a long name for a state-of-the-arts exhibition space in a brand new, upscale shopping complex downtown.

That this facility sits cheek-to jowl with the likes of Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna, and Giorgio Armani is only fitting. Far too often the visual art museums are – is banished too strong a term? – to leafy regions far from the shopping action.

The gallery building was designed by Herzog and de Meuron, Swiss architects whose work on the Modern Tate Gallery in London made their reputation as museum specialists.

The exhibition, worked out with the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, is a German-first showing of masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age. Haarlem artists played a decisive role in the floswing of 17th-century Dutch painting. More than 120 works by artists like Hendrick Goltzius, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruysdael, Pieter Saenredam, Jan Steen and others tell how a free market in art emerged and how artists began to specialize: portraits, landscapes, cityscapes, marinescapes, still-lifes and genre painting are all present in this show.

The arts in Haarlem went through an upheaval in the period from 1610 to 1630. Artists had to seek out new markets after the Reformation, when the Catholic Church ceased to be a major patron. Instead, city governments and newly rich burghers became the buyers. New subjects grew popular: the city, its countryside, food and utensils became now worthy and saleable subjects. The burghers themselves, from every social class, appeared in portraits and scenes from daily life.
The star of the show, Frans Hals (ca. 1581-1666), grew up in Haarlem and revolutionized portraiture.

His artistic genius set the tone for the entire genre by perfectly expressing movement and the individuality of the sitters. Hals was particularly adept at capturing a fleeting expression of joy and mirth, as in his Merry Drinker.

But the centre pieces of the show are two large collective male and female portraits , the supervisors of a home for indigent old men. Hals here displays his mastery of the sure, swift brushstroke and of the colour black – Van Gogh thought he could detect 27 shades of black. Black predominates in the portraits because it was the favourite colour for Calvinist fashion.

Although the sitters gaze about with serious mien, the portraits burst with life and intimacy, authenticity and immediacy. A beguiling detail is a lady’s hand turned just so to show off her ruby ring - and the lace, the lace!.

There were many other worthy samples of the arts of Haarlem’s Golden Age. The show breathed the optimism, confidence and joi de vivre of this special era of Dutch history. Your editor could not stifle a pang of jealousy, because its neighbor Germany at the time went through the agonies of the Thirty Years War.

Yet, out in Munich’s afternoon sunshine, we reflected that the arts of each country will surely have a Golden Age. Just as Canada’s is sure to come – in time.
Just a note on the Canadian contribution to it all - the large, black, floppy hats were made with our beaver pelts.