A man playing the bagpipes; and A youth playing the violin

The prototype of the second picture, lozenge shaped, of circa 1625/30, is in a private collection, Montreal (S. Slive, Frans Hals, III, 1970/74, p.33, no.53, ill.). That of the first has not been traced. Since it bears the Hals monogram, it is probably after a lost original. The unusual lozenge shaped supports suggest that they were intended to decorate a cabinet. As such they could probably have been part of a larger series, in which the depiction of a girl, in the same collection in Montreal, could be included (S. Slive, op. cit., III, p.33, no.52).

Sold with a copy of Wilhelm Bode's, Die Grossherzogliche Gemlde Galerie zu Schwerin, Vienna, Gesellschaft fr Vervielfltigende Kunst, 1891, with 42 full page illustrations and 40 text illustrations; original gilt stamped cloth, some foxing and staining but generally in a good condition.