渔童

In Haarlem around 1630 Frans Hals kept a busy portrait practice, but he also turned out heads like this one, called tronies, studies of a type rather than likenesses of a named sitter. This laughing boy, a fishing basket on his back and a battered cap on his head, belongs to a whole set of fisher children Hals and his workshop made for the open market, where buyers wanted something lively and affordable. What sold them was the handling, quick and loose visible strokes that catch a grin the instant before it fades, fresh enough to look careless up close and to pull together at a distance. Hals rarely dated these, and scholars still argue over how many of the fisher children are fully his own hand and how many came from his workshop.