Frans Hals

Hals, Frans (c.1580–1666), Dutch portrait painter. Many of his greatest works, such as the Lady Governors of the Old Men's Home at Haarlem (1664), are civic portraits. His later works have a somber serenity, but many portraits and genre scenes, such as Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Militia (1616) and the Laughing Cavalier (1642), are infused with a rich joviality. Five of his sons were also painters.