A Music Party, Dirck Hals
Small pictures of elegant people feasting, drinking, flirting and playing music or gambling became very popular in the first half of the seventeenth century. Dirk Hals specialized in this kind of painting. The most important influences on him were the lively works of William Buytwech (1591 – 1624). Elias van de Velde had painted similar pictures in the decade before. Together, the three artists developed this time of “Merry Company” scene. Although Dirk Hals studied with his elder brother Frans (1582/83 – 1666), and the influence of his brother’s style is frequently obvious, the scarcity of works from Fans Hals’ early period makes it difficult to determine how much the elder influenced the younger.
