Frans Hals (Antwerp 1581/85-1666 Haarlem)

Supporting the attribution of this head of an old woman to Hals, Klaus Grimm noted that it has been cut down, likely from a half- or three-quarter-length composition (see Grimm 1989, op. cit., pp. 26,28). In its current format, the portrait nevertheless reveals the distinctive visible brushstrokes and highly individualized features that distinguished Hals amongst his contemporaries. E.C. Montagni compares this painting to the Portrait of Maritge Voogt Claesdr. (1577-1644), Wife of Pieter Jacobsz. Olycan, burgomaster of Haarlem in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. SK-C-139), which depicts another older woman wearing a white headpiece and large ruff, her head angled slightly so as to produce a shadow on her proper left temple and a two-tone area of shade across the back of her collar. These same elements are visible in the present work, creating an interplay of light and dark in an almost geometric pattern that serves to complement and frame the looser handling and variegated skin tone of the face.