HARMEN HALS (Haarlem 1611 - Haarlem 1669)
A Merry Couple
signed in monogram and dated 1648 in the middle right
oil on panel
16 1/4 x 12 5/8 inches (41 x 32 cm.)
Sold to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands
PROVENANCE
Repelaer Van Spykenisse
Van der Veen
Leonardus Nardus né Leonardus Salomonson, aka Leo Nardus, by 1897, from whom acquired by
Peter Arrell Brown Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Ashbourne, Pennsylvania, 1897 – 1909, when sold to
A. J. Sulley & Co., London
F. Kleinberger Galleries, Paris, 1930
Old Master Paintings, Sotheby Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, June 2, 1986, where bought by
Rafael Valls, London, 1986
Sale, Old Master Paintings, Sotheby’s, New York, October 21, 1988, lot 155, (as by Harmen–Franz–Hals) where purchased by
Private Collection, Toronto, until 2022
LITERATURE
Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Private Collection of P.A.B. Widener, Part II, Early English and Ancient Paintings, Goupil & Co., Paris, 1885 – 1900, pp. 170 – 171, illustrated (as by Franz Hals)
The Spectator, no. 4018, May 27, 1905, p. 801 (as by Frans Hals)
The Athenaeum, Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama, no. 4048, May 27, 1905, p. 644 (as by Frans Hals)
W. Stanton Howard, “ ‘The Lovers’ by Frans Hals” in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, volume CXI, no. DCLXI, June 1905, pp. 48-49, illustrated (as by Frans Hals)
The Library Index, volume I, no. 6, June 1905, p. 212, (as by Frans Hals)
Academy Notes, volume I, no. 1, Buffalo, NY, June 1905, p. 185, (as by Frans Hals)
The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume 298, London, June 1905, p. 4 (as by Frans Hals)
The Medico – Legal Journal, volume 23, Medico-Legal Journal Association, 1905, p. 163 (as by Frans Hals)
The Annual Library Index 1905, Office of the Publishers’ Weekly, I. Fletcher & H. E. Haines, New York, 1906, p. 148, (as by Franz Hals)
Anna Lorraine Guthrie, ed., Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature 1905 – 1909, volume II, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1910, p. 1075, (as by Frans Hals)
“Henry Wolf” in Official Catalogue of the Department of Fine Arts, Panama – Pacific International Exposition, The Wahlgreen Company, 1915, p. 228, no. 7501 (as by Hals)
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Catalogue of an Exhibition of Engravings on Wood – Originals and Reproductions of Famous Paintings by the Late Henry Wolf, N.A., October 1916, unpaginated, no. 81 (as by Frans Hals)
Ralph Clifton Smith, Life and Works of Henry Wolf, Winfred Porter Truesdell, Champlain, 1927, p. 84, no. 673, (as by Frans Hals, in the collection of P.A.B. Widener)
London, Rafael Valls, Recent Acquisitions, 1987, unpaginated, no. 15, illustrated (as by Harmen-Fransz Hals)
ENGRAVED
Henry Wolf (as The Lovers by Frans Hals), circa 1905
The period from about 1870 until World War I marks the era in which the greatest collections of Dutch art in America were formed. This was a reflection of the considerable esteem Americans held for Dutch culture and art. Perceived masterpieces were hotly sought after by extremely wealthy collectors, and in particular those by the “big three” Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer. Illustrative of the state of the American market for Dutch pictures at this time is a letter that J. P. Morgan’s lawyer John G. Johnson (whose collection is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) sent to Bernard Berenson in 1910 after attending the estate sale of Charles T. Yerkes in New York. “The Yerkes sale has placed America in the very front rank of art-understanding countries, so far at least as an understanding of art does not extend beyond the ability to pay extraordinary prices …, A genuine Hobbema went at a reasonable price and a lot of fake ones followed at figures not very much less … a Hals attributed to Frans, but [which] his son Herman [Harmen} had obligingly painted for him, went for $33,000.”[1]
The story behind Harmen Hals’ A Merry Couple is similar. Its earliest given history are the two Dutch collections of Repelaer Van Spykenisse and Van der Veen. Presumably this information was provided by Leonardus Nardus, the son of a prosperous Utrecht antiques dealer, who had established himself as an art dealer based in New York and Paris when he sold this painting to Peter Arrell Brown Widener by 1897. Widener was regarded as one of the “grand acquisitors” of the period along with Frick, Morgan, Mellon and Altman.[2] Among the richest men in America, Widener was an avid collector who filled his 110-room mansion Lynnwood Hall just outside Philadelphia with art and other treasures. By 1907 Widener had come to suspect that some of the 93 paintings bought from Nardus were questionable. In 1908 Hofstede de Groot accompanied by Wilhelm Valentiner had been summoned to review Widener’s Dutch paintings.[3] A listing of what works they assessed is available at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague. Paintings that were listed as wrong, as well as modern fakes, were returned to Nardus. Others were marked to be kept, while a group that were lesser examples by the painter or carried inflated attributions were recommended to be sold, as was the case with our painting which had been published in the catalog of Widener’s collection as by Frans Hals.[4] As recorded in an annotated copy of Widener’s catalog, held at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C. done after de Groot’s visit, our painting was sold to A. J. Sulley & Co, London in 1909.[5] “[Arthur Joseph] Sulley dealt quietly in the greater of the great names among the Dutch school,” and “loomed large in the Bond Street trade in his own day”.[6] This painting is next recorded in Paris with the well-known F. Kleinberger Galleries by 1930, followed by an auction in Amsterdam at Sotheby’s in 1986. The distinguished firm of Rafael Valls, London published it in 1987 and the panel appears once more in New York at a Sotheby’s auction in 1988. At that sale it was acquired by a private collector based in Toronto who owned it until 2022.
Throughout the twentieth century this painting has been on a fascinating journey, first as part of the Widener Collection, and then for sale in all of the art capitals of the world. After it was engraved by Henry Wolf and titled Frans Hals, The Lovers, it was repeatedly published and reflects a near mania for all things Hals in America at this time. A masterwork by Frans’ son Harmen, it is a quintessential embodiment of the joyous scenes of flirtation whether in the tavern, a kermesse, or wedding that comprise so much of seventeenth century Dutch art.
Harmen was the oldest son of Frans Hals and his first wife Anneke Harmensdr. Abeels. Four of his brothers were also painters: Frans the younger, Reynier, Nicolaes and Johannes (Jan). Dirck Hals was his uncle. Trained by his father, he too produced works of genre and portraits characterized by “loose brushstrokes in lively characterization and … strong illumination”[7] as demonstrated by this panel. He worked in Haarlem, Vianen, Amsterdam, Noordeloos and Leiden. He married three times, before 1638 to Claesje Jansdr. in Vianen, to Sanderijna Remmegeer in Haarlem, and with Anna Cabbeljou in Leiden in 1667.[8] His paintings formed part of the permanent collections of museums in Aachen, Budapest, Enschede, Groningen and Haarlem.
[1] Walter Liedtke, “Dutch Paintings in America, The Collectors and Their Ideals” in Great Dutch Paintings from America, Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1991, pp. 16, 44.
[2] Ibid, pp. 14, 44.
[3] Jonathon Lopez, “ ‘Gross false pretenses’. The misdeeds of art dealer Leo Nardus” in Apollo, volume 166, issue 549, December 2007.
[4] See: Archief Hofstede de Groot [HDG] inv. 19. at the RKD.
[5] See the annotated Widener catalog labeled ‘P.A.B. Widener collection, February 1st, 1908’ in the Library of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., cat. N5220. W726 1908 fol.
[6] M. J. Ripps, “The London Picture Trade and Knoedler & Co.: Supplying Dutch Old Masters to America, 1900 – 1914” in British Models of Art Collecting and the American Response, Reflections Across the Pond, Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington, VT, 2014, p. 166.
[7] Ingeborg Worm, “Frans Hals” in From Rembrandt to Vermeer, 17th Century Dutch Artists, The Grove Dictionary of Art, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2000, pp. 136-137.
[8] “Harmen Hals” on rkd.nl (RKD Explore) website.