Portrait of a Woman

1634

Frans Hals Dutch, ca. between 1582 and 1583-1666

On View

Dutch Golden Age, Level 3, South Wing

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance page
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.
Audio Transcript

Please note: This section is empty

About the Artwork

Portrait of a Woman is a markedly restrained painting by Frans Hals, who is best known for his swaggering, bravura portraits rendered with a quick and impressionistic brush. The smoothly modeled brushstrokes and minute attention to detail reflect the classicizing style Hals occasionally experimented with in the mid-1630s. The figure wears the conservative outfit typical of a seventeenth-century upper-middle-class Dutch citizen — complete with a broad-shouldered black jacket and stiff white ruff. Her only adornments are the subtle flower embroidery on her white cap and the delicate edging of lace visible at her wrists. This sober style of dress underlines the liveliness of the sitter’s face, with its amused smile and slightly skeptical look in her sparkling dark eyes.

Title Portrait of a Woman

Artwork Date 1634

Artist Frans Hals

Life Dates ca. between 1582 and 1583-1666

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Dutch

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on oak panel

Dimensions Unframed: 28 3/4 × 22 1/8 inches (73 × 56.2 cm) Framed: 38 1/2 × 31 5/8 × 1 7/8 inches (97.8 × 80.3 × 4.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit City of Detroit Purchase

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 23.27

Markings

Inscriptions Inscribed, upper left, above shoulder: AETA SVAE 34 | AN 1634 | FH [monogram interconnected]

Provenance

Collection Baron Albert von Oppenheim (Cologne, Germany);
March 19, 1918, auction (Lepke, Berlin, Germany) lot 14 [sold for DM 230, 000];
(Goldschmidt Galleries, (New York, New York, USA);
1923-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Catalogue of the Baron von Oppenheim Collection. Cologne, 1904, no. 13.

Hofstede de Groot, C. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Vol. 3. London, 1920, no. 380.

von Bode, W. and M.J. Binder. Frans Hals, sein Leben und seine Werke. Berlin, 1914, no. 157.

Valentiner, W. R. Frans Hals des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1921, p. 118 (ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 3, 8 (1922): pp. 80-81 (ill.).

Burroughs, C.H. "Painting by Franz Hals Acquired." Bulletin of the DIA 5, 1 (1923-1924): pp. 2-3 (ill.).

Loan Exhibition of Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1925, no. 7.

Heil, W. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, no. 92 (ill.).

Exhibition of Fifty Paintings by Frans Hals. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1935, no. 24.

Richardson, E.P. "The Frans Hals Exhibit." Bulletin of the DIA 14, 5 (1934-1935): pp. 50-51 (ill.).

Valentiner, W.R. Frans Hals in America. Westport, 1936, no. 47.

Frans Hals. Exh. cat., Frans Hals Museum. Haarlem, 1937, p. 40, no. 51 (pl. 52).

van Dantzig, M. M. Frans Hals, Echt of Onecht? Amsterdam, 1937, no. 63.

Frans Hals. Exh. cat., Schaeffer Galleries. New York, 1937, no. 10.

Trivas, N. S. The Paintings of Frans Hals. New York, 1941, no. 47 (ill.).

Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 57, no. 92.

Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Frans Hals and Rembrandt. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1947, pp. 17-18, no. 6 (ill.).

Masterpieces of Art. Exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2959, p. 102, no. 58 (ill.).

Slive, S. Frans Hals, London, 1970-1974. Vol. 1, p. 119 (fig. 113); Vol. 2 (pl. 159); Vol. 3, p. 57, no. 101.

Grimm, C. Frans Hals Entwicklung. Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatalog. Berlin, 1972, pp. 91, 202, no. 66.

Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck. Exh. cat., Frans Hals Museum. Haarlem, 1979, p. 131. [as erroneous attribution to Verspronck based on inscriptions on Dayton Art Institute drawings, and cited as by Frans Hals]

Grimm, C. Frans Hals: the Complete Works. New York, 1990, p. 280, no. 69 (ill.).

Keyes, George S. et al. Masters of Dutch Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2004, pp. 88-89, no. 33 (ill.).

Keyes, G.S. "A Brief History of the European Paintings Collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts with a Focus on the Dutch School." TEFAF Maastricht. 2005, pp. 10-15.

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback