Shop art print and framed art Le Bouffon au luth by Frans Hals

The Lute Player is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1623 or 1624 now in the Louvre by the Haarlem painter Frans Hals, showing a smiling actor wearing a jester's costume and playing a lute. This painting was documented by Wilhelm von Bode in 1883, Ernst Wilhelm Moes in 1909 and Hofstede de Groot in 1910, who wrote: The theme of a lute player painted at half length originated in Italy, and the Dutch painter Dirck van Baburen first introduced this theme in the Northern Netherlands with his lute player of 1622. Baburen's player is pointing his lute towards the viewer with his mouth open in song. Hals' player is looking up and smiling naturally, as if he is playing with a singer or another musician not in view. This painting is a good example of Hals' rough style of painting with loose brush strokes. A period copy now in the collection of the Rijksmuseum has been dated before 1626 based on an engraving, and it has been attributed variously to Hals, his brother Dirk, and Judith Leyster. Two other paintings of lute players by Hals are: Hals was not the only painter to be influenced by Baburen. Hendrik ter Brugghen painted several lute players in the 1620s, and a few of them seem to merge aspects of Baburen and Hals, though his later version seems to follow Hals more closely. This painting has been copied by other artists, most notably by David Bailly in his 1651 self-portrait with his artist's influences, and by Adriaan de Lelie with his 1813 self-portrait with Josephus Augustinus [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the baroque style.

 

« Le Bouffon au luth » is kept at Louvre, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of Le Bouffon au luth by Frans Hals on Wikipedia.