Pictures of the Month | October 2010
Picture of the Month
October 2010
Portrait of a Man holding a Skull, about 1610
Frans Hals (1581 - 1666)
Oil on wood
In the month that celebrates Halloween, we are taking a closer look at this Portrait of a Man holding a Skull by the Dutch artist Frans Hals.
Probably born in Antwerp, Hals spent most of his life in Haarlem where he entered the Guild of Painters in 1610. This portrait is part of a pair; the other, a portrait of the man’s wife, is in the Duke of Devonshire’s collection at Chatsworth. These are the earliest known portraits painted by Hals, and in 1988 it was discovered that the oak panels were taken from the same tree trunk and the pigments used for the respective grounds layers were identical in each. According to the laws of heraldry, in traditional portraiture the male took precedence over the female and this practice was acknowledged by Hals. In the Birmingham-Chatsworth pair, the husband assumed his traditional place of precedence to the right of the coat of arms and the wife on the left side.
We know of at least thirty pairs of portraits by Hals of husbands and wives. Most of these include coats of arms and this has helped to pinpoint the identity of some of Hals’ clients. But despite the presence on this painting of a coat of arms and an inscription stating that the sitter was aged 60, his identity remains tantalisingly elusive. The inscription includes an emblematic maxim ‘Ita Mori’ (To perish thus) which is a reference to the man’s mortality, also represented by the skull in his left hand. This object symbolically refers to death, and within this context further alludes to the vanity and brevity of human life (vanitas). While Hals also used other props in his portraits, such as books, hats or gloves, the vanitas theme was common, with flowers and timepieces also acting as reminders of the transience of life. The man’s healthy complexion, worldly stare and plump figure nevertheless suggest he enjoyed a comfortable indeed prosperous lifestyle.
A free gallery talk on this work will be given on Thursday 28 October at 1.30pm in the Red Gallery.
Tamsin Foulkes, Collections Assistant
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