Van Campen Family Portrait in a Landscape

Artist Frans Hals (Dutch, ca. 1581 - 1666)

Place of OriginNetherlands

DateEarly 1620s

DimensionsPainting: 60 × 64 3/4 in. (152.4 × 164.5 cm)
Frame: 69 1/2 × 74 × 4 in. (176.5 × 188 × 10.2 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott, and the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Bequest of Jill Ford Murray, and Gift of Mrs. Samuel A. Peck, Mrs. C. Lockhart McKelvy, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick S. Ford, by exchange

Object number

2011.80

Not on View

Label TextDutch painter Frans Hals is considered one of the greatest portraitists, revered for his mastery of compositional structure, his ability to capture a natural sense of vitality, and especially his bravura brushwork (see, for example, the glove held by the father or the crimson sleeve of the eldest daughter). This family portrait is a fragment of a larger composition that depicted the fashionably dressed cloth merchant Gijsbert Claesz. van Campen and his wife Maria Jorisdr. with their 13 children, all interacting affectionately through glance and gesture. Sometime before the end of the 18th century the canvas was cut apart vertically at the right. A surviving segment showing three children (and a partial fourth) is in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. A third fragment of the head of a boy belongs to a private collector. A 14th child was born a few years after the painting’s completion. She was added at the lower left in 1628 by a different painter, Salomon de Bray (1597–1664), in a style noticeably different from that of Hals. [Separate wall label] Scan the QR code for a video about the proposed reconstruction of the original Van Campen family portrait. [Make QR code for https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=flnChpfFQ84] [U:\TMA Publications and magazine covers\Past Publications\Hals\!Exhibition images\ 2. Children of the Van Campen Family with a Goat-Cart.tif] Frans Hals, Children of the Van Campen Family with a Goat Cart. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels [U:\TMA Publications and magazine covers\Past Publications\Hals\!Exhibition images\ 3. Portrait of a Boy of the Van Campen Family.tif] Frans Hals, Portrait of a Boy of the Van Campen Family. Private collectionPublished ReferencesHofstede de Groot, Cornelis, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, Volume III, 1910, no. 444.

Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, "Twee Teruggevonden Schilderijen door Frans Hals," Oud-Holland, XXXIX, 1921, pp. 65-68.

Valentiner, W.R., Frans Hals… in 322 Abbildungen mit einer Vorrede von Karl Voll (Klassiker der Kunst, vol. 28), 2nd rev. ed. 1923, pp. 159-161.

Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1929, p. 172, no. 369.

van Puyvelde, Leo, ‘”Children with a Goat”, by Frans Hals’, Burlington Magazine, LIV, 1929, pp.80-85.

Bauch, K., review of the 1929 Royal Academy exhibition in Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, LXIII, 1929-30, p.12.

Slive, Seymour, "A Proposed Reconstruction of a Family Portrait by Frans Hals," Miscellanea I.Q. van Regteren Altena, 1969, pp.114ff.

Broos, B.P.J., review of the 1971 Brussels exhibition in Vrij Nederland, 11 December 1971.

Martin, Gregory, "The Inventive Genius of Frans Hals," Apollo, XCIV, 1971, p.243.

Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, vol. I, pp.61-66, 141 and figs. 41-44; vol.3, cat. no.15, pp.10-11.

Grimm, Claus, Frans Hals: Entwicklung, Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatalog, 1972, cat. no.12.

Ekkart, Rudolf E.O., review of C. Grimm in Oud-Holland, LXXXVIII, 1973, p.253.

Montagni, E.C., L’Opera Completa di Frans Hals, 1974, cat. no. 20.

Middelkoop N., & A. van Grevenstein, Frans Hals: life work restoration, Amsterdam, Uniepers, 1988, pp. 7, 23.

Grimm, Claus, Frans Hals: The Complete Work, 1990, cat. no. 11, pp.61-62, 120-122, 178.

Biesboer, Pieter, "The Identification of a Family Portrait by Frans Hals Recently Acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art," The Burlington Magazine, v.55, no. 1319, February 2013, p. 72-76, fig. 2 (col.) p. 74.

Nadler, Steven, The Philosopher, the Priest, and the Painter: a Portrait of Descartes, Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2013, p.69-70, fig. 7, p. 70.

Slive, Seymour, Frans Hals, London, Phaidon, 2014, extensively revised 2nd edition, pp.70-71, repr. (col.) pp. 70 and 94, pl. 41, repr. (det.) p. 95.

Erftemeijer, Antoon, Frans Hals: a Phenomenon, Haarlem: Frans Hals Museum, 2014, repr. (col.) p. 90.

Ekkart, Rudi and Claire van den Donk, Lief & Leed: Realisme en fantasie in Nederlandse familiegroepen uit de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, Zwolle, Netherlands, Waanders Uitgevers, p. 136, repr. (col.) afb. 37, p. 136.

Nadler Steven M., The Portraitist: Frans Hals and His World. University of Chicago Press, 2022, plate 4A (col.) p. 113-114.

Abadie, Marjan, Méditer avec l'art: Mindful art, un voyage en pleine conscience à travers les chefs-d'oeuvre, Paris, Eyrolles, 2023, repr. (col.) p. 135.

Grimm, Claus, "Frans Hals and Gerrit Bleker: a joint collaboration on a fragmented family portrait (1923-1625)", Oud Holland, v. 137, 1/2, 2024, figs. 1a, 1c (col.) p.34-35, 43.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, Jan. 4–March 9, 1929.

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts, Rembrandt en zijn tijd, Sept. 23–Nov. 21, 1971, no. 43A.

London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, Frans Hals, 1989-1990, no. 10.

Extended loan to Cardiff, National Gallery of Wales.

Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium; Paris, Fondation Custodia, Frans Hals Portraits: A Family Reunion, Feb. 2-Aug. 25, 2019. Berlin, Germany, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Frans Hals, July 12 - Nov. 3, 2024.