Frans Hals, A young man with a large hat, 1629 by Atelier Liesjes

From his waist up, a smiling, light-skinned young man wears a voluminous dark hat and brown suit in this vertical portrait. He sits with his body tilted to the left so that his right elbow, further away from us, hooks over the back of his wooden chair. He turns his face so that his chin is pulled back slightly to look at us over his left shoulder with dark eyes under dark eyebrows. His cheeks are red and his light brown moustache frames his pink lips, parted in a smile. His straight brown hair falls to his ears under a wide-brimmed hat as wide as his shoulders. The brim is pushed up and is wide enough to cover the crown of the hat. A flat, white, lace-trimmed collar is tied around his throat with a red ribbon. Wide lace cuffs run back along his forearms over his pecan-brown jacket, which is lined at the front with a row of shiny buttons. His left hand, closer to us, appears to be resting on his lap, just out of sight, so that elbow protrudes towards us. His other hand wraps itself in a fist around the top of the chair's backrest. He sits behind an oval opening painted to resemble a stone frame within the rectangular panel. The face of the oval frame and the background behind the man are shades of peanut and fawn brown. The painting is done with fluid and loose brushstrokes, especially in the clothing.

Frans Hals (Antwerp, Brabant, Belgium 1582/1583 - Haarlem, Holland, the Netherlands 26 August 1666) ranks with Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer among the three most important painters of the Dutch Golden Age era. He is particularly appreciated for his loose touch and lively portraits. Hals, like that of Rembrandt and Vermeer, belongs to the Dutch school.