Bildnis des Paulus van Beresteyn

Around 1619 Paulus van Beresteyn, a lawyer in the Dutch city of Haarlem, married for the third time, and a wedding was the usual occasion for a well-off couple to have themselves painted. He and his new wife, Catharina Both van der Eem, each sat to Frans Hals, the town's leading portraitist, for a matching pair that still hangs together today in the Louvre. Beresteyn stands in sober black, the fashion for a serious man of the law, his lace collar and quick, confident hands showing exactly the loose brushwork Hals was becoming known for. The two portraits came down through his own family and were sold to the Louvre in 1885, still a couple more than two centuries after they were married.