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1645 Oil on canvas, 80 x 67,5 cm National Gallery, Prague Hals's most penetrating characterizations date from the last decades of his life. With uncanny subtlety, he grasped the personalities of all types: the strong and the vulnerable, the pompous and the meek, the brutal and the tender. Though he found some sitters more congenial than others, the aged master never seems to have been bored with his job. During these years he was especially sympathetic to sitters of his own generation. The pictorial reserve of his last phase was particularly suitable for the portrayal of his peers, whose age and tastes made them shun the new vogue for the ostentatious. But we sense he could also be critical of them. He was, however, more devastating when appraising members of the younger generation who found themselves dissatisfied with their father's tastes, and began to imitate the manners and clothes of the French nobility. Yet the artist was able to satisfy the desire of young patrons for rich effects without losing his extraordinary sensitivity to tonal gradations as seen in his half-length of Jasper Schade, a patrician of Utrecht who later was representative of his province to the States-General. Hals's characterization of him, and his firm control of pictorial organization, convince us that as a young man his sitter was a vain, proud peacock, an impression confirmed by a contemporary report that he spent extravagant sums on his wardrobe. In a letter written in 1645 (almost certainly the date of Hals's portrait) his uncle admonished his son, then in Paris, not to run up tremendous bills with his tailors the way his cousin Jasper Schade had done. A subtle emphasis on verticality in the portrait contributes to Jasper's haughty air - not that an emphasis on vertical forms must needs express arrogance, but here it certainly does. His hat's upward turned brim and the straight arrangement of his long hair accent the length of the face of a man looking down at people below his station. And while thin, frail bodies may contain most noble spirits, this one hardly inspires confidence in its inner strength. As dazzling as Hals's appraisal of his sitter are the zigzag and angular brushstrokes that suggest the nervous dance of bright light on his grey taffeta jacket while creating an electrifying movement on the picture surface.Artist:HALS, Frans Title: Jasper Schade Painted in 1601-1650 , Dutch - - painting : portrait |
