Frans Hals: The Male Portrait – Wallace Collection, London

A review of Frans Hals: The Male Portrait, a temporary exhibition now on at the Wallace Collection in London. This intimate look at a selection of Hals’s works shines a light on broader questions of masculinity as well as celebrating the artist’s skill.

Frans Hals: The Male Portrait

It has been some time since I was at the Wallace Collection. They were brave frontrunners in reopening after the first lockdown in 2020, and as such, have pride of place as the very first entry in my Covid Diaries series. A short time later I returned to see the exhibition Forgotten Masters. This very interesting exhibition shone a light on the works of South Asian artists painting for a Western audience. More than a year later, I am now back at the Wallace Collection to see a different sort of exhibition, Frans Hals: The Male Portrait. For more information on the background of the Collection, see here.

As the title suggests, this exhibition looks at the work of one artist. And more than that, focuses in on a subset of his paintings: portraits of male sitters. In this sense the exhibition is admirably simple. It consists of thirteen works, nicely spaced out in rooms which I have seen hold many more paintings. The nature of Dutch 17th Century fashion and art makes the selection fairly monochromatic. The figures are mostly in black and grey, with neutral backgrounds. Against this, the curators have chosen a perfect palette of warm reds and maroons. The colour swatches are reminiscent of the Seagram Murals of Mark Rothko, and the effect is dark, cosy and soothing. Perhaps a little womb-like to offset the masculine subject matter?

The limited selection of works gives this exhibition time to be very thoughtful. Thoughtful first of all regarding the paintings – what they tell us about the sitters, and about Hals. Thoughtful also about the insights they offer into masculinity; how it is less of a constant and more of a fashion than we might believe. Let us take our time also, then, and have a look at the works before reflecting on some of the bigger themes.

The Men Of 17th Century Haarlem

Thirteen portraits of male sitters, then. And a mixed bunch they are! We’re not talking the full gamut of society – you had to be wealthy to afford a portrait. But amongst the baker’s dozen we see brewers, merchants, an Admiral in the Dutch East India Company, and noblemen. Also some sitters whose names are now lost. Hals painted into his 80s, so the paintings span a number of decades. We can see changing fashions, and the artist’s evolving style. And perhaps even the same sitter depicted twice – there is a possibility that the Wallace Collection’s famous Laughing Cavalier also appears in a later portrait. The latter is the only work here which cannot be photographed, so have a look at the link to make up your own mind.

There is an excellent (and free) audioguide to accompany the exhibition. If you visit, do take one. Without it I would have struggled to spend 30 minutes in the exhibition. With it, I was there for over an hour. For each painting there is at least one track to listen to. Some are by curator Dr. Lelia Packer. Others are by academics, conservators, museum professionals, even a glove expert. It’s wonderfully interesting, and keeps things fresh. After all – we are looking at thirteen men dressed in black and grey: I think it’s the audioguide which creates true variety and holds the visitor’s interest. More on Grayson Perry‘s contribution to the audioguide shortly.

With such a simple exhibition concept, what really shines through is Hals’s technical mastery, and skill at capturing personalities. We can study the realistic depiction of sitters’ faces, and the way that their clothing, painted in a few broad strokes, nonetheless resolves itself into beautiful fabrics from the right distance. We can also see how Hals drew on a few poses which create a connection or a distance with the viewer, according to what his client wanted to portray. It’s hard to see how Hals’s work ever fell out of favour.

What Does This Tell Us About Masculinity?

This is certainly a very masculine exhibition. Each of the portraits, drawn from collections all over the world, is of a single male sitter. So not even a woman as a background prop. The Wallace Collection has embraced the possibilities rather than the limitations of this restriction. They have collaborated with mens’ health charity Movember. And a thread running through the audioguide is famously gender non-conforming national treasure Grayson Perry, in conversation with Wallace Collection Director Dr. Xavier Bray.

The conversation between Perry and Bray is not limited to masculinity (masculinities?), but often comes back to it. Together, they discuss how these men consciously presented themselves – in terms of dress, pose, accessories, etc. What we can see is different ways of being a man in 17th Century Haarlem. And through that lens – how masculinity is something that is constantly reconstructed, rather than being a constant. Perry pulls no punches, and there were a couple of quotes so delicious I had to write them down:

“He looks like – you know – if he was in the nineteenth century he would be into laudanum and poetry. Big time.”

“He really does look … a brawling bruiser of a man. And he’s a chunk.”

Grayson Perry, in conversation with Dr. Xavier Bray

Utilising the format of the exhibition to go deeper than a single artist and how he painted his male sitters gives real depth to the experience. I somehow wasn’t expecting to do so much reflecting, but I enjoyed the insights. I don’t think the approach would have worked in a bigger exhibition; you need something small enough to be able to take time in front of each work, listening to the various tracks and doing some proper thinking. For me then, this exhibition is one which is small but perfectly formed.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 5/5

Frans Hals: The Male Portrait on until 30 January 2022