[[Image:Hals Self Portrait.jpg|150px|right]]
'''Frans Hals''' ([[Antwerp]] ca. Antwerp 1580- [[Haarlem ]] 1666) Dutch [[Baroque]] painter. The most important [[Dutch ]] [[portrait ]] painter.
Like his contemporary [[Spanish]] painter [[Diego Velazquez]], he used colour to structure forms. It is in the paintings of his old age that his genius for portraying human character is fully revealed. Hals evolved a technique that was close to impressionism in its looseness, and he painted with increasing freedom as he grew older. [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/h/hals/frans/biograph.html]
Some of his famous works are: ''The Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Militia Company'' 1616, ''Laughing Cavalier'' 1624, ''Gipsy Girl'' 1628-30 and ''Officers and Sergeants of the St. Hadrian Civic Guard'' 1633. Some 250 paintings by Hals still exist, of which almost 200 are [[portraits]].
{{Clear}}== Gallery Petite gallery ==
<Gallery>
Image:Hals Malle Babbe.jpg|"Malle Babbe"
Image:Hals Laughing Cavalier.jpg|"Laughing Cavalier"
File:Hals Isaac Abrahamsz Massa 1626.jpg|"Isaac Abrahamsz Massa"
</Gallery>
*[[Painting Masterpieces]]
*[[Painting Schools]]
*[[Dutch Golden Age]]
*[[Painting of the Dutch Century]]
== External links ==
[[File:Hals Gypsy Girl.jpg|thumb|Gypsy Girl, ca. 1628-30.]]
*[http://www.abcgallery.com/H/hals/hals.html Biography] Olga's Gallery.
*[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/h/hals/frans/biograph.html Biography] Web Gallery of Art.
*[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hals_frans.html Frans Hals.]
[[File:Hals Married Couple in a Garden 1622.jpg|thumb|left|Married Couple in a Garden, 1622.]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hals, Frans}}
{{DEFAULTSORT[[Category: Hals, Frans}}Flemish Painters]][[Category:Flanders]][[Category:Dutch Painters]][[Category:Netherlands]]