European Art

Cornelius Guldewagen, Mayor of Haarlem

ca. 1660. Frans Hals (Netherlands, ca. 1581–1666)

Oil on oak panel16 x 12 inchesGift of Mr. and Mrs. Merle J. Trees 1953-1-1

During Frans Hals's long career, which spanned virtually the entire golden age of Dutch art, he invigorated painting with a new naturalism, in both the portraits that account for the majority of his surviving work and a smaller output of genre paintings. Known as the "portraitist of Haarlem," he acquired a fame that peaked in the 1630s with nine large group portraits—six of military groups and three of regents. Despite his renown, he was never financially successful and died deeply in debt.

This portrayal of the mayor or Haarlem shows Hals's distinctive brushwork—swift strokes suggest a cuff, a hand, and a glove, broadly brushed areas of light and dark create strong shapes, and deep shadow contrasts with fine tonal gradation to model the subject's face. Hals refrained from making preliminary sketches or drawings in order to convey the vitality of his sitters with fresh and direct painting.
Hals was virtually forgotten for almost two centuries after his death, until his rediscovery by the French impressionists, who admired the way he caught fleeting moments animated by light. This portrait began traveling soon after Krannert Art Museum opened in 1961. 

Text by Helen Peterson and Robert B. Smith, from Krannert Art Museum: Selected Works, 2008

  

Angola Cross

Angola Cross

  

Decorative Arts

Lambeth Delft Fecundity Dish

Lambeth Delft fecundity dish, ca. 1650
Maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware)
15 x 18 inches

The Lambeth fecundity dish displays the many sources of English Delft pottery. The palette, some of the decorative patterns, and the medallions are derived from Ming porcelains, while other details are influenced by Italian maiolica, or tin-glazed earthenware. The yellow overglaze and the rust dots on the rim border are borrowed from earlier Dutch Delft pottery, and the shape and sculptural design are taken from a dish by the French artist/artisan Bernard Palissy. The "earth mother" subject reflects the Renaissance and baroque revival of classical motifs.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Chinese porcelain vases were highly prized in Europe, and artisans frequently emulated their forms and styles. The first technique to inspire imitation was tin-glazing, which had been perfected in the Middle East and brought to Europe by Muslims early in the eighth century. 

The secret of Chinese porcelain was discovered in the early eighteenth century by the young chemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, who identified its components as kaolin, quartz, and feldspar added to clay. As a result of Böttger's research, the Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufacture was established in Meissen, Germany, in 1710.