Офицеры роты гражданской гвардии Святого Георгия в 1639 году

By 1639 the civic guard companies of Haarlem had mostly stopped fighting anyone. Peace with Spain was near, and these militia banquets and portraits had become a way for a town's leading men to be seen together. This is the last and largest of the group portraits Frans Hals painted for the St George company, more than four metres of officers in the coloured sashes of their brigades. Hals knew them from the inside. He had served in the company for 25 years, though he was never made an officer. He worked himself into the picture as well, a face looking out from the top left corner. It is the only self-portrait of him that survives.