Laughing Boy with Flute

For about two centuries after his death, Frans Hals was out of fashion. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, critics rediscovered him, and collectors with new fortunes began to compete for his pictures. One of those collectors was Alfred Beit, a German-born financier who had made his money in the South African diamond fields and hung Dutch paintings in his London house. This small round picture, less than 30 centimetres across, was in his collection when he died in 1906. It passed to his brother Otto and stayed with the Beit heirs, and today it is in a private collection. Hals painted it in Haarlem around 1625. The old catalogue description is precise: a boy turned to the left, his long hair tousled, lips parted over his teeth, eyes glancing up, and a flute held upright in his right hand.