Skip to main content
Collections Menu
#109: By Ian Wardropper, Director Transcript

The sitter in this portrait is believed to be Cornelis Backer, a successful civic leader in Haarlem, the city in which Frans Hals spent most of his life. This identification is based on his striking resemblance to a portrait of Backer in another group painting by Hals. An inventory of Backer’s estate also lists a portrait by Hals, strengthening this hypothesis.

This painting was possibly intended to commemorate Backer’s marriage—a stormy relationship subsequently marked by a legal dispute and disinheritance—but it conveys only Mr. Backer’s confidence and social importance.

Portrait of an Elderly Man

 (Dutch, ca. 1581–1666)
Dateca. 1627–30
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions45 1/2 x 36 in. (115.6 x 91.4 cm)
Credit LineHenry Clay Frick Bequest
Accession number1910.1.69
Commentary

The technique of this portrait dating from Hals’ early maturity is learned in part from Rubens. Halftones are superimposed in hatched strokes over lighter pigment applied in a thin, fluid coating. The warm but restricted color scheme and the subject’s animated expression and self-confident air are typical of Hals’ major works from this period. Matchmaking between male and female portraits is a popular pursuit among Hals scholars, who sometimes pair the Frick portrait with a female portrait dated 1633 in the Washington National Gallery. The evidence that the two were a couple is, however, far from conclusive.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Collection History

Lord Arundell, of Wardour. C. J. Wertheimer. Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris (1895). Maurice Kann, Paris. Duveen. Frick, 1910.

Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German. Volume I. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.

Not On View
Oil painting of a standing man wearing black and white
Frans Hals
ca. 1660
Oil painting of man wearing black and sitting in chair
Frans Hals
ca. 1650
Oil painting of sitting woman wearing black
Frans Hals
1635
oil painting of a man wearing a red cap and a black fur-trimmed cloak
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
ca. 1520
oil painting of woman wearing a black dress with gold jewelry and holding a closed gray fan
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
1824
Oil painting of sitting man wearing yellow and arms on armrest
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1658
Oil painting of sitting man wearing black outfit and hat
Follower of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1650s
Oil painting of standing woman wearing white and pink dress
James McNeill Whistler
1881–82
Oil painting of woman standing in black dress
Gerard ter Borch
ca. 1665–70
oil painting of a Venetian Procurator with a white beard and wearing a red cloak
Circle of Jacopo Tintoretto
16th century
Copyright © 1998-2024 The Frick Collection. All Rights Reserved.
FacebookYoutubeInstagramTwitterGoogle Arts and Culturemenusearch2xX