Art-Hals-The Happy Couple TB02

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This is one of a series of travel bugs made to recognize paintings seen, and admired by the bug owner. A digital copy of the painting was downloaded from the internet. It was reduced in size, and proportions cropped to accommodate the laminating materials available to the owner. Regrettably these processes diminish the efforts of the artist. One truly must see the originals in person to fully appreciate the work. The text below is a mixture of my own observations and material gleaned from the internet (mostly Wikipedia and Web Gallery).

Frans Hals (1580-1666) was one of the three preeminent painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The other two were Rembrandt and Vermeer. All three produced magnificent portraits, but they all produced works of other subjects—and they had very distinctive styles. Hals evolved a technique that was close to impressionism in its looseness, and he painted with increasing freedom as he grew older. His early works often depict jovial people, with smiling, rosy-cheeks (of which this painting is an example). In middle age his portraits grew increasingly sad, revealing perhaps a sense of foreboding. This mood persisted into his later years when he produced some of his finest technical works. However, what commissions he did receive were not enough to support him, and, like his two great compatriots Rembrandt and Vermeer, he saw his possessions sold at auction for debt. The deaths of these three Masters (Hals, in 1666, age 86; Rembrandt, 1669, 63; Vermeer, 1675, 43) mark the end of artistic innovation in the Golden Age.

It is assumed by many critics that the sitters are Isaac Massa and his wife Beatrix van der Laen. This pose is in contrast to most wedding portraits of the day. Throughout Europe. whether as a single painting or two, the spouses were usually rigidly arranged with sober demeanors. In this case the recently married couple, leaning against the trunk of a tree, emphasizes the casual air of the portrait. The ivy twining itself around the tree and curling round at the woman's feet, who, in turn, has her hand negligently resting on the man's shoulder, symbolizes the permanence of the marriage. Taken as a whole, the couple seem very comfortable and happy with each other. This painting hangs in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.