Hals
FRANS (häls), the Elder, a Dutch portrait and genre painter; born probably in Antwerp, in 1580 or 1581.
He studied under Karel van Mander and, according to some accounts, under Rubens. Hals is usually regarded as the founder of the Dutch school of genrepainting. Of his portrait groups eight noble examples are preserved in the museum of Haarlem. The "Mandoline seum of Haarlem.
Player" (1630), in the gallery of Amsterdam, is a typical example of his treatment of single figures. As a teacher he exercised a marked influence on the development of Dutch art, Jan Verspronck, Van der Helst, Adrian van Ostade, Adrian Brouwer, and Wouwerman having been his pupils. A replica of his "Hille Bobbe" (Berlin Gallery) is in the N. Y. Metropolitian Museum of Art. He died in Haarlem, Netherlands, in August, His brother, DIRK HALS (before 1600- 1656), a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert, was also an excellent genre painter; and HAM several of Frans' sons were artists, the most celebrated being Frans Hals, the Younger, who flourished from about 1637 to 1669.