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Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat

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Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat
Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat photographed in 2019
ArtistFrans Hals
CatalogueHofstede de Groot, Catalogue raisonné 1910: No. 278
MediumOil on canvas
MovementDutch Golden Age
Dimensions64 cm × 52 cm (25 in × 20 in)
LocationHerzogliches Museum, Gotha (inventory no. SG 690)

The Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat is a work by the Dutch Golden Age artist Frans Hals. It was painted in about 1625–1635 and hangs in the Herzogliches Museum ("Ducal Museum"), part of the Friedenstein Palace complex at Gotha, Germany. It was stolen in 1979, recovered in 2019, and restored in 2020–2021.

Description and context

The work is a half-length portrait of a middle-class man who is about 30 years old. The sitter (who is not identified) has a rather glassy complexion and regular features. His nose is straight, his cheeks are rosy, and he wears a moustache. He is turned three-quarters right and smiles at the viewer. He holds his right hand to his breast and leans towards us a little to catch our attention. He seems to rest his right elbow on the picture-frame as if it were a window-sill, potentially crossing the boundary between his space and ours. The sitter wears a black doublet and a plain black silk cloak, a white falling collar of fine pleated linen, and a wide-brimmed black felt hat. The background is grey. From the viewer's perspective, the light falls from the left. The portrait is in oil on canvas glued to an oaken panel from later than 1688. It is not signed or dated. Cornelis Hofstede de Groot notes its "broad and vigorous" style, while Katja Kleinert (curator of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art at the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) observes that it makes a remarkably dynamic impression for a portrait from its time.[1][2][3][4][5]

In the period when the portrait was painted, black attire was popular among male professionals, ecclesiastics, and magistrates in the Netherlands (where commerce, the sciences, and the arts were flourishing). A big black hat signalled masculinity and self-assuredness. Black was chic, evoking seriousness, religiosity, and restrained sobriety, and Hals was renowned for his masterly handling of black clothes.[6] As Vincent van Gogh enthused 250 years later in a letter to his brother Theo: "Frans Hals heeft wel zeven en twintig zwarten" (Frans Hals must have twenty-seven blacks).[7] The black cloak in particular is finished in the "rough" or "loose" style characteristic of Hals, seemingly dashed off at speed in broad, unblended brushstrokes. It lends his work vitality.[8]

Like this sitter, some men wore a falling collar in the Netherlands in the late 1620s and early 1630s as an alternative to the physically and metaphorically stiff "millstone" ruff.[6] Although high fashion at the time favoured an elaborate turned-back cuff to the shirt, this sitter's shirt has only modest lace trim at the wrist, of the kind typically worn by Mennonites.[9]

Hofstede de Groot suggested the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat may be a self-portrait by Frans Hals,[2] while Wilhelm Valentiner thought it possibly a pendant to the Portrait of a Seated Woman at Göteborg, Sweden (which is, however, now no longer attributed to Frans Hals).[10]

In 1879, Heinrich Justus Schneider [de], the director of paintings and engravings at Gotha, made a watercolour of the picture gallery at the Herzogliches Museum. It shows the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat as it was then hung (subject to a little artistic licence), near another Hals portrait that is now in a private collection.[11][12]

Retribution, theft, return, and restoration

In retribution (and not only as reparation) for the immense losses suffered by the people of the Soviet Union at the hands of Germany in the Second World War, occupying Soviet authorities carefully removed a large number of works from Reinhardsbrunn Palace (some 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from Gotha) in 1945 and sent them to Russia. They included the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat, which was in storage at Reinhardsbrunn for safekeeping. The plan was to build a new museum in Moscow exhibiting art from the West. However, following a change of policy after the GDR had become established as an ally of the Soviet Union, the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat was returned to Gotha in 1958.[5]

Twenty-one years later, the painting was stolen. In the early hours of 14 December 1979, one or more burglars broke into Friedenstein Palace and stole the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat as well as works by (or after) Ferdinand Bol, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Anthony van Dyck, and Hans Holbein the Elder[4] in an evidently carefully planned and targeted operation. The police feared at the time that the paintings were damaged, because they found a trail of broken picture-frame parts along the escape route through the palace gardens. But despite extensive investigations by both the VoPo and the Stasi into what was the most significant art theft ever in the GDR, the trail went cold. In 2008, the mayor of Gotha, Knut Kreuch [de], launched a media campaign in an effort to find and recover the stolen works, to no avail.[13][14]

Then in June 2018, Kreuch was approached by a lawyer known to facilitate the return of stolen works of art. After long and sensitive negotiations conducted by Kreuch in person, the five pictures were given back "in fairly good shape" on 12 September 2019.[13] Conservator Fuhyi Kuo restored the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat in Gotha, and the five returned works were exhibited together at the Herzogliches Museum in 2021–2022.[15][4][16]

Attribution

Ernest II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg acquired the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat for the Gotha ducal collection in 1804. There it was at first attributed to Thomas de Keyser, but Schneider (1854),[1] Ernst Wilhelm Moes (1909),[17] Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1910),[2] Wilhelm von Bode (1914),[18] Wilhelm Valentiner (1923),[3] Frans Dony (1976),[19] and the Herzogliches Museum[4] all attribute the painting to Frans Hals. Some other authorities, such as Seymour Slive, do not. In his 1974 catalogue, Slive lists the portrait but glosses its attribution to Frans Hals as ("D" for) doubtful – he had not had occasion to inspect the original work.[1] In accord with Slive, Claus Grimm's 1989 catalogue omits the portrait from the works attributed to Frans Hals.[20]

When the painting was recovered in 2019, the Herzogliches Museum had it examined for authenticity at the Rathgen Research Laboratory in Berlin, which conducted infra-red reflectographic, radiographic, and macro analyses. Based on the report from the Rathgen and on Kleinert's opinion, the Herzogliches Museum concluded that the portrait is indeed the work of Frans Hals himself.[1][4]

Date

Hofstede de Groot dates the portrait "about 1630–5".[2] Valentiner has 1631–1633 but wonders whether it might not be a few years earlier.[3] Kleinert has 1625–1630.[1]

Illustrations for comparison

  • Disattributed Portrait of a Seated Woman at Göteborg
    Disattributed Portrait of a Seated Woman at Göteborg
  • Isabella Coymans by Frans Hals
    Isabella Coymans by Frans Hals
  • Jan Miense Molenaar(?) by Frans Hals
    Jan Miense Molenaar(?) by Frans Hals
  • The other Hals portrait that used to hang in Gotha
    The other Hals portrait that used to hang in Gotha

Wilhelm Valentiner thought the Portrait of a Seated Woman possibly a pendant to the Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat, but it has since been disattributed. The woman wears a "millstone" ruff.[10]

Isabella Coymans is a good example of Hals's "rough" or "loose" style of painting applied to black clothes.

Jan Miense Molenaar (the identity of the sitter is not certain) was painted by Frans Hals at about the same time as the similarly attired and posed Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat. The face is handled similarly in the two portraits, as is the background.[4] However, Molenaar wears big pleated cuffs, and his cloak is (deliberately) "slashed" to reveal the quality of his white shirt.

The other, later, portrait of a man with a hat by Frans Hals that once also hung at the Herzogliches Museum is now in a private collection. This sitter wears a glove, signalling his wealth.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Kleinert, Katja (2021). "Chapter III – Objektkatalog (exhibition catalogue); no. 80 Frans Hals (1580/85–1666) Bildnis eines jungen Mannes (um 1625–30)". In Trümper, Timo (ed.). Wieder zurück in Gotha!. Michael Imhof Verlag (Petersberg, Germany). pp. 211–215. ISBN 978 3 7319 1151 7.
  2. ^ a b c d Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis (1910). "A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seventeenth century based on the work of John Smith (volume III)". archive.org. Translated by Hawke, Edward. Macmillan and Co., London. Retrieved 9 July 2022. (near the foot of page 80, item 278)
  3. ^ a b c Valentiner, Wilhelm (1923). "Frans Hals – des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abbildungen (zweite, neu bearbeitete Auflage)". archive.org (in German). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig. Retrieved 9 July 2022. (For image, see page 100; for description "S. 100", see page 313.)
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Presseinformation – Was machen eigentlich die fünf Rückkehrer aus dem Gothaer Kunstraub?" (PDF). www.stiftungfriedenstein.de (in German). Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Lost Art Gotha: Der Mann mit Hut (1/5)". www.ardaudiothek.de (in German). ARD. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2022. (And the podcast linked on that page)
  6. ^ a b Packer, Lelia; Roy, Ashok (2021). Frans Hals – The Male Portrait. London: The Wallace Collection & Philip Wilson Publishers. pp. 18 to 24 (The Men in Black section). ISBN 978 1 78130 110 4.
  7. ^ "[Letter] To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 20 October 1885". vangoghletters.org (in Dutch). Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Retrieved 9 July 2022. (At margin note 2r:5)
  8. ^ Atkins, Christopher (2012). The Signature Style of Frans Hals. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 87 to 113 (Virtuosity). ISBN 978 90 8964 335 3.
  9. ^ Slive, Seymour (1989). Frans Hals. London: Royal Academy of Arts. pp. 264 to 267, discussing Feyntje van Steenkiste.
  10. ^ a b Valentiner, Wilhelm (1923). "Frans Hals – des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abbildungen (zweite, neu bearbeitete Auflage)". archive.org (in German). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig. Retrieved 9 July 2022. (For image, see page 101; for description "S. 101", see page 313.)
  11. ^ Trümper, Timo (2021). "Der Aufstieg der Gothaer Kunstsammlungen". In Trümper, Timo (ed.). Wieder zurück in Gotha!. Michael Imhof Verlag (Petersberg, Germany). pp. 22–31. ISBN 978 3 7319 1151 7.
  12. ^ "Wieder zurück in Gotha! Die verlorenen Meisterwerke" (PDF). www.stiftungfriedenstein.de (in German). Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha. 21 October 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022. See page 9.
  13. ^ a b Von Hammerstein, Konstantin (12 December 2019). "East German Art Heist Mystery Nears Resolution". www.spiegel.de. Der Spiegel. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  14. ^ Voigtmann, Sandra (23 October 2021). "Gothaer Gemäldediebstahl 1979: Diese Fragen sind noch offen". www.mdr.de (in German). MDR. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  15. ^ dpa (15 September 2020). "Restauratoreninnen nehmen sich verloren geglaubter Gemälde an". www.monopol-magazin.de (in German). monopol Magazin für Kunst und Leben. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  16. ^ Krey, Johannes (16 April 2021). "Restaurierung des Gemäldes "Brustbild eines unbekannten Herrn mit Hut und Handschuhen" von Frans Hals fast abgeschlossen". www.johannes-krey.de (in German). JKFotografie&TV. Retrieved 10 July 2022. [dead link]
  17. ^ Moes, Ernst Wilhelm (1909). "Frans Hals, sa vie et son œuvre". archive.org. Translated by De Boschère, Jean. Brussels: G. van Oest & cie. Retrieved 19 July 2022. (page 106, item 141)
  18. ^ Von Bode, Wilhelm (1914). Frans Hals – His Life and Work – edited by Wilhelm von Bode, with an Essay by M. J. Binder (two volumes). Berlin: Photographische Gesellschaft.
  19. ^ Dony, Frans (1976). Meesters der schilderkunst – Het komplete werk van Frans Hals. Rotterdam: Lekturama.
  20. ^ Grimm, Claus (1989). Frans Hals – Das Gesamtwerk (in German). Stuttgart and Zürich: Belser Verlag. ISBN 3-7630-1946-4.
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