Frans Hals (Antwerp 1582/3-1666 Haarlem)

Portrait of a lady, three-quarter-length, in a black dress with a white collar and white cuffs

Details

Frans Hals (Antwerp 1582/3-1666 Haarlem)
Portrait of a lady, three-quarter-length, in a black dress with a white collar and white cuffs
oil on canvas
39 x 32 in. (100.3 x 81.3 cm.), but see the note to the preceding lot concerning the original dimensions.

Provenance

Prignon Collection (according to an inscription recorded by Slive as being on the stretcher: 'De la Collection de M. Perignon ... Par Franck Hals').
Urzas collection, Madrid, whence acquired by 1868 by
Emile and Isaac Preire; sale Pillet, Paris, 6-9 March 1872, lot 121, illustrated opposite p. 80.,described as 'De grandeur naturelle...' (21,000 francs).
Gustav Ritter von Epstein, Vienna, circa 1870.
with C. Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1898, 'Catalogue of 300 Paintings', no. 51.
Baron Albert von Rothschild, Vienna.
Rothschild inv. no. LR12.

Literature

W. Brger [Thor], 'Galerie de Mme. Preire', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XVI, 1864, pp. 299-301.
W. Bode, Studien zur Geschichte der hollndischen Malerei, Brunswick, 1883, no. 125, dated 1638.
E.W. Moes, Frans Hals, sa Vie et son Oeuvre, translated by J. de Bosschere, Brussels, 1909, no. 116.
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonn, etc. III, 1910, p. 114, no. 397, as a pendant to the preceding lot.
T. von Frimmel, Lexikon der Wiener Gemldesammlungen, Munich, I, 1913, pp. 318-319.
W. von Bode and M.J. Binder, Frans Hals, sein Leben und seine Werke, Berlin, 1914, no. 249.
W.R. Valentiner, 'Frans Hals', Klassiker der Kunst, XXVIII, 2nd. revised edn., Stuttgart-Berlin-Leipzig, 1923, p. 247, as circa 1649-50.
F. Dhlberg, Frans Hals: ein Leben und ein Werk, Stuttgart, 1930, p. 194, fig. 83.
G. Heinz and F. Klauner, Katalog der Gemldegalerie, II, Teil, Vlamen, Hollnder, Deutsche, Franzosen, Vienna, 1963, no. 185.
S. Slive, Frans Hals, Volume One: Text, London, 1970, p. 184, and
Volume Two: Plates, pls. 287 and 293.
C. Grimm, 'Frans Hals und sein 'Schule', Munchener Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, XXII, 1971, p. 163, no. 21.
K. Demus, ed., Katalog der Gemldegalerie, Hollndische Meister des 15., 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, p. 38.
S. Slive, Frans Hals, Volume Three: Catalogue, London, 1974, no. 185, p. 96.
C. Grimm and E.C. Montagni, L'Opera Completa di Frans Hals, Milan, 1974, no. 254.
C. Grimm, Frans Hals, 1989, p. 245, fig. 140, as Workshop of Hals, circa 1652.
F. Jowell, 'The Rediscovery of Frans Hals' in S. Slive, catalogue of the exhibition, Frans Hals, Washington, London, Haarlem, 1989-1990, p. 66, fig. 2.
K. Groen and E. Hendricks, 'Frans Hals: a Technical Examination' in ibid., pp. 111-2, 116 and 119.
C. Brandsttter, ed., Die Gemldegalerie des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien, Verzeichnis der Gemlde, Vienna, 1991, inv. no. 9092, p. 65, fig. 508.

Exhibited

Vienna, sterreichischen Museum fr Kunst und Industrie, 1873, no. 107.
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 9092, since 1947.

Engraved

F. Bracquemond, for the catalogue of the 1872 Preire sale.

Sale room notice

We are grateful to Dr. Burton Fredericksen of the Getty Information Institute for providing the following probable additional provenance:

PROVENANCE:
with Guillaume-Jean Constantin (1755-1816); (+) sale, Prignon/Chariot, Paris, 18 November 1816 and successive days, lot 204 (34 frances to Prignon), 'Un portrait de femme, debout et vue jusqu'au genoux, dans le costume hollandais, sur toile, h. 39 pouces, l. 28 pouces [corresponding to the canvas' original dimensions]'.

Lot Essay

For a commentary, see the note to the preceding lot.

Two drawn copies are recorded by Slive, loc. cit., 1974: Anon. sale, Christie's, 9 June 1939, lot 102, as ex-colls. Sir C. Burton, Lord Ronald Sutherland-Gower and C. Fairfax Murray; and Francis Wellesley, sale, Sotheby's, 28 June-29 July 1920, lot 496, perhaps the work of Jan Gerard Waldorp (1740-1809). They testify to the charm and quality of the portrait which were eloquently praised by Brger loc. cit.: 'Elle est frache comme une belle pomme encore attache la branche. C'est la sant dans toute son exubrance. Quelque chose de la paysanne, dont le teint s'enfleurit au grand air. Les gens du monde ne doivent pas le trouver trs lgante, mais a se porte bien, et c'est franc du coeur comme du corps. Les deux mains unies ensemble sont merveilleuses. ... On ne sait trop comment c'est fait, par quelques touches hardies qui accusent juste la forme et le mouvement.'

The Praire collection, from which this work was sold in 1872, was an important French nineteenth-century collection of pictures, acquired to a great degree at auction from such collections as those of the Barons of Mecklenburg, Prince Demidoff, Lord Northwick, the Earl of Pembroke and King Louis-Philippe of France (sold in these Rooms during May 1853). The present picture was acquired along with several other works from the Urzas collection in Madrid, from which, in the introduction to the 1872 sale catalogue, it is recorded that 'MM. Praire ne conservrent que les tableaux les plus importants; les tableaux de saintet et d'histoire furent donns des glises ou des tablissments publics de province'.

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