This portrait was painted as a pair with the image of the man’s wife appearing to the right. The man has not been identified, in spite of the coat of arms, but the inscription records that he was 60 years old. The double portrait celebrates the couple’s wealth and status, but the skull and the inscription ‘ITA MORI’ indicate a broader truth. Worldly possessions cannot hide the fact that we are doomed to ‘To Perish Thus’, from living flesh and blood to whitened bones.

Inscriptions / Translations:  Inscribed u.r.: ITA MORI/AETAT SUAE 60

Notes:  Exhibited: 'Dutch Art', Royal Academy, London, UK, 1929, no. 116; 'Frans Hals', Gemeentelijk Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands, 1937, no. 7; 'Seventeenth Century Art in Europe', Royal Academy, London, UK, 1938; 'Dutch Pictures 1450-1750', Royal Academy, London, UK, 1952, no. 68; Edinburgh Festival, UK, 1954; 'Frans Hals', Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, Netherlands, 16 June 1962- 30 September 1962, no. 1; 'Frans Hals', Royal Academy, London, UK, 13 January 1990 - 08 April 1990, no. 2; Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art, 1580-1620', Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 10 December 1993 - 06 March 1994, no. 272; 'Birth of a Collection: Masterpieces from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts', National Gallery, London, UK, 22 May 2013 - 01 September 2013; 'Frans Hals: the Male Portrait', Wallace Collection, 22 September 2021 - 30 January 2022 (Cat. pp.2-4); 'The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals,' The National Gallery, London, 30 September 2023- 21 January 2024 (fig. 58, pp. 88, 212).

1 Related People

2 Related Publications