Frans Hals (1582/83-1666) is rightfully considered one of the most important seventeenth-century Dutch painters. His portraits are admired for their virtuoso brushwork and their seemingly spontaneous character. This volume, with fourteen contributions by twenty-six specialists on Hals’s paintings and his artistic network in Haarlem and beyond, presents a rich palette of new research.

The authors introduce subjects such as the artist's clientele - from clergymen and fellow painters to governors of charitable institutions - as well as stylistic and technical aspects of individual paintings. Results of recent restorations are discussed, but also how advanced digital technologies contribute to our understanding of the painter's style and artistic development. A final section is dedicated to the rediscovery of Frans Hals in the second half of the nineteenth century and to the following art historical debate among connoisseurs about the artist’s oeuvre.

Frans Hals: Iconography - Technique - Reputation is the first volume in the Frans Hals Studies book series and is richly illustrated with close to two hundred colour illustrations.

Dr. Norbert E. Middelkoop is senior curator of paintings, prints and drawings at the Amsterdam Museum and the former curator of old masters at the Frans Hals Museum.

Rudi E.O. Ekkart is the former director of the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Foreword - Marrigje Rikken
Introduction - Norbert E. Middelkoop
Iconography
1. Frans Grijzenhout - The Religion(s) of Frans Hals
2. Christopher D.M. Atkins - Peeckelhaering and the Performance of Race
3. Marike van Roon - Painted Stitches: Embroidery and the Paintings of Frans Hals
4a. Liesbeth Abraham - More than Decoration (I): The Map in Frans Hals's Regents of St Elisabeth’s Hospital Identified
4b. Koos Levy-van Halm - More than Decoration (II): The Map in Frans Hals's Regents of St Elisabeth's Hospital Interpreted
5. Pieter Biesboer - Willem or Balthasar? The Portrait of a Member of the Coymans Family by Frans Hals Reconsidered
6. Norbert E. Middelkoop - Frans Hals's Portraits of Painters: A Reconnaissance
Technique
7. Mireille te Marvelde, Liesbeth Abraham, Herman van Putten and Michiel Franken - A Box Full of Research: Early Twentieth-Century Documentation on the Scientific Investigation and Restoration of the Eight Group Portraits by Frans Hals
8. Anna Tummers, Arie Wallert, Robert G. Erdmann, Katja Kleinert, Babette Hartwieg, Dorothy Mahon, Silvia Centeno, Roger Groves, Andrei Anisimov and Joris Dik - The New York Malle Babbe: Original, Studio Work or Forgery?
9. Claus Grimm - Looking at Frans Hals in the Digital Age: The Benefits of Detailed Comparisons
10. Herman van Putten, Liesbeth Abraham and, Mireille te Marvelde - Lost Lines: New Light on the Painting Technique of Frans Hals
11. Liesbeth Abraham - Unfinished Business? Comparing Hals’s Late Regents and Regentesses
Reputation
12. Emilie den Tonkelaar - From a Parisian Dining Room to a German Private Museum: Frans Hals in the Collections of Count André Mniszech and Marcus Kappel
13. Michiel Franken - ‘Because you simply cannot argue about art with a chemist': Scientific Research of Frans Hals Paintings in the Netherlands during the 1920s
14. John Bezold - Frans Hals Connoisseurs and Exhibitions: From Thoré to Today
Bibliography
Index