Portrait of a family in a landscape - three temporarily united fragments

Mikebrice · CC-BY-SA-4.0

Portrait of a family in a landscape - three temporarily united fragments


Details

Year
1624
Medium
oil paint
Type
painting
Dimensions
152 × 270 cm

The story

This began life as one enormous family portrait, painted by Frans Hals around 1624 and stretching nearly 4 metres wide, the Van Campen family, parents and a crowd of children, out in a landscape. At some point, probably around 1800, someone cut it into pieces and sold them off separately. For two centuries the parts led separate lives: the main group ended up in Toledo, Ohio, a strip of children with a goat-cart in Brussels, and a single boy's head in a private collection. In 2018 all three were finally hung side by side again in one room, where the seams still showed how the great canvas had been carved apart.

Portrait of a family in a landscape - three temporarily united fragments — Frans Hals — MuseScope