Editing Frans Hals (section)

==Wedding portraits==
{{main|Marriage pendant portraits by Frans Hals}}
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:Frans Hals - Portrait of Jacob Olycan - Mauritshuis 459.jpg|Portrait of [[Jacob Pietersz Olycan]] (1596–1638), 1625, Mauritshuis.
File:Frans Hals - Portrait of Aletta Hanemans - Mauritshuis 460.jpg|Portrait of [[Aletta Hanemans]] (1606–1653), bride of Jacob Olycan, 1625, Mauritshuis.
File:Frans Hals - Paulus Beresteyn, rechter te Haarlem.jpg|[[Paulus van Beresteyn]], 1629, [[Louvre]].
File:Paulus van Beresteyns vrouw Catharina Both van der Eem.jpg|[[Catharina Both van der Eem]], bride of Paulus Beresteyn, 1629, [[Louvre]].
File:Frans Hals 1644 Portrait of Joseph Coymans.jpg|[[Joseph Coymans]] (1591–1660), the husband of Dorothea Berck, 1644, [[Wadsworth Atheneum]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Biesboer |first=Pieter |title=Willem or Balthasar? The Portrait of a Member of the Coymans Family by Frans Hals Reconsidered |date=2024 |work=Frans Hals |pages=82–91 |editor-last=Middelkoop |editor-first=Norbert E. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.22135982.9 |access-date=2025-01-01 |series=Iconography – Technique – Reputation |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-6606-8 |editor2-last=Ekkart |editor2-first=Rudi E.O.}}</ref>
File:Dorothea Berck door Frans Hals in 1644.jpg|[[Portrait of Dorothea Berck|Dorothea Berck]] (1593–1684), wife of Joseph Coymans, 1644, Private Collection.
File:Frans Hals 038.jpg|[[Portrait of Stephan Geraedts, husband of Isabella Coymans]], 1652, [[Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp]].
File:Frans Hals - Portrait d'Isabella Coymans.jpg|[[Isabella Coymans]], wife of Stephan Geraedts, 1652, Private Collection.
</gallery>

The only record of his work in the first decade of his independent activity is an engraving by [[Jan van de Velde]] copied from the lost portrait of ''The Minister Johannes Bogardus''. Early works by Hals show him as a careful draughtsman capable of great finish yet spirited, such as ''[[Two singing boys with a lute and a music book]]'' and ''Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia'' (1616). The flesh that he painted is pastose and burnished, less clear than it subsequently became. Later, he became more effective, displayed more freedom of hand and a greater command of effect.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[File:Frans Hals - Luitspelende nar.jpg|thumb|''[[The Lute Player (Hals)|Jester with a Lute]]'', 1620–1625, canvas, [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.]]
During this period, he painted the full-length portrait of [[Catharina Both van der Eem|Madame van Beresteyn]] ([[Louvre]]) and a full-length portrait of [[Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword|Willem van Heythuysen posing with a sword]]. Both these pictures are equalled by the other ''Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia'' (with different portraits) and the ''[[The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627|same militia in 1627]]'' and ''[[The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633|Banquet of the Officers of the St Hadrian Militia]]'' of 1633. [[The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639|A similar painting]] with the date of 1639 suggests some study of Rembrandt masterpieces, and a similar influence is apparent in a [[:File:Frans Hals 018.jpg|group portrait of 1641]] representing the regents of the [[St. Elisabeth Gasthuis, Haarlem|St Elisabeth Gasthuis]] and in his 1639 portrait of [[:File:Frans Hals 027.jpg|Maria Voogt]] at Amsterdam.<ref name=EB1911/>

From 1620 till 1640, he painted many double portraits of married couples on separate panels, the man on the left panel and his wife on the right panel. Only once did Hals portray a couple on a single canvas: ''[[Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen|Couple in a garden: Wedding portrait of Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa and Beatrix van der Laan]]'', ({{circa|lk=no|1622}}, [[Rijksmuseum]] [[Amsterdam]]).<ref name=Bezold>[https://oudholland.rkd.nl/index.php/reviews/44-review-of-frans-hals-portraits-a-family-reunion 'Review of: Frans Hals portraits: A family reunion', Oud Holland Reviews, December 2020.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422031401/https://oudholland.rkd.nl/index.php/reviews/44-review-of-frans-hals-portraits-a-family-reunion |date=22 April 2021 }} Review of exhibition publication.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Signature Style of Frans Hals Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity |author1-first=Christopher DM. |author1-last=Atkins |year=2012 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=9789048514595 |page=128 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hkhAwAAQBAJ |access-date=11 August 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926152653/https://www.google.de/books/edition/The_signature_style_of_Frans_Hals/5hkhAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}</ref>

His style changed throughout his life. Paintings of vivid color were gradually replaced by pieces where mostly black came to dominate. This was probably due to the sober dress of his Protestant sitters, more than any personal preference. One simple way to observe this change is to look at all of the portraits that he painted through the years with his trademark pose leaning over the back of a chair:
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:Portrait of Isaac Abrahamsz. Massa by Frans Hals.png|1626
File:Frans Hals - Oficial Sentado.jpg|1631
File:Frans Hals 037.jpg|1633
<!-- :Image:Willem Heythuijsen by Frans Hals 1634.jpg|1634 -->
File:Frans Hals 035.jpg|1635
File:Frans Hals, Willem Coymans, 1645.jpg|1645
File:Frans Hals 066.jpg|1645
File:Frans Hals - Frans Post (Worcester Art Museum).jpg|1655
File:Frans Hals 068.jpg|1665
</gallery>