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Lot Essay
Very little is known about Dirck Hals and excepting a visit to Leiden in the early 1640s, most of his career seems to have been spent in Haarlem where he worked in the shadow of his elder brother, Frans Hals. The genre of 'merry companies' was first introduced to the Haarlem painters by the Rotterdam artist, Willem Pietersz. Buytewech, who lived in Haarlem from 1612/17 and is best known today for his innovative prints which contributed to the spread of early naturalistic landscape painting. His compositions depicting fashionable young people disporting either inside or, as in the present painting, against a landscape backdrop, show scenes of levity often combined with hidden meaning about vanity and the folly of sensual enjoyment.
Hals's practice of repeating individual figures in different compositions, often in identical poses, is a testament to his practice of re-using preparatory drawings, as well as to the stereotypical conventions of the merry company theme. For instance, in the present work, the standing man on the right mimics the pose of a similar figure depicted in the Elegant couple setting out for a promenade formerly in the collection of the New York Historical Society. A date of execution of circa 1620-4 seems probable for the present work, based on a comparison with signed and dated works of 1621 (Christie's, London, April 21, 1989, lot 32 75,000=$136,500) and 1624 (with Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, 1986). Both paintings depict a frieze-like arrangement of figures before a diagonal screen of trees, a format favored by the early Haarlem landscape painters. They also have identical still life elements to the right. The present painting favors a similar placement but here Hals adds the copper bowl, pewter plates and the empty oyster shells which together with the dog in the center of the composition elude to the dangers of a salacious life.
Hals's practice of repeating individual figures in different compositions, often in identical poses, is a testament to his practice of re-using preparatory drawings, as well as to the stereotypical conventions of the merry company theme. For instance, in the present work, the standing man on the right mimics the pose of a similar figure depicted in the Elegant couple setting out for a promenade formerly in the collection of the New York Historical Society. A date of execution of circa 1620-4 seems probable for the present work, based on a comparison with signed and dated works of 1621 (Christie's, London, April 21, 1989, lot 32 75,000=$136,500) and 1624 (with Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, 1986). Both paintings depict a frieze-like arrangement of figures before a diagonal screen of trees, a format favored by the early Haarlem landscape painters. They also have identical still life elements to the right. The present painting favors a similar placement but here Hals adds the copper bowl, pewter plates and the empty oyster shells which together with the dog in the center of the composition elude to the dangers of a salacious life.