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
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.
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.
