Young Man holding a Skull (Vanitas)

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Catalogue entry

FRANS HALS, c. 1580/5–1666
6458 Young Man holding a Skull (vanitas)

Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, 1991

Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).

Plate 142

Oil on canvas, 92.2 × 80.8 cm (36¼ × 34½).

Cleaned in 1980

Discussion

The painting is a vanitas; the skull held by the boy is a reminder of the transience of life and the certainty of death. As such it belongs to a tradition showing young men holding skulls which goes back at least as far as Lucas van Leyden’s engraving of 1516.¹ The boy’s costume is of an extravagant kind favoured by the Dutch Caravaggisti in their allegorical and genre subjects.²

Hofstede de Groot described it as Hamlet³ but this identification is entirely fanciful.

The painting has been dated by Slive to c. 1626–8⁴ and by Grimm⁵ to c. 1626–7.

A vanitas by Frans Hals is cited in the inventory of the painter Pieter Codde (Amsterdam, 5 February 1636) but there is no way of knowing whether or not this was No. 6458.⁶ Plietzsch⁷ incorrectly attributed the painting to Judith Leyster.

COPY/COPIES: Slive⁸ suggested that a small panel which was lot 175 in the K. van Winkel sale, Rotterdam, 20 October 1791 – ‘Een Jong Manspersoon met een Doodshoofd in zij hand, hoog 8, breed 6 duim, op paneel’ – might be a copy of No. 6458 or perhaps a preparatory study for it. In an unpublished note in the RKD ,⁹ HdG noted ‘a little copy of the so‐called Hamlet’ (which could be the same painting) at the Galerie Locarno in Paris, December 1928.

EXHIBITIONS: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 1896 ; Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, ‘Frans Hals Tentoonstelling’, 1937 , No. 93; RA 1928, No. 132; RA 1952–3, No. 102; Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, Frans Hals Exhibition, 1962 , No. 18; San Francisco/Toledo/Boston 1966–7, No. 17; London 1976, No. 49; Washington/London/Haarlem 1989–90, No. 29.

PROVENANCE: According to the Elton Hall catalogue¹⁰ it was purchased for Sir James Stuart, Bart., by the painter Andrew Geddes; it passed to his daughter, Mrs Woodcock, 1849; and then to her son, the Revd E. Woodcock, 1875; was inherited by his sister, Mrs Stuart Johnson, 1893; and purchased from her by the 5th Earl of Carysfort, Glenhart Castle, Ireland, in 1895 through Messrs Lawrie, London, for £3,800. By descent to Sir Richard Proby, Bart., MC; it was purchased under private treaty sale arrangements in 1980.

REFERENCES:

General: HdG No. 102; Slive, op. cit. , cat. no. 61; Grimm, op. cit. , cat. no. 26.

In text:

1. There is, for example, a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius of 1614 inscribed Quis evadit/Nemo (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York: inv. no. III, 145) and two drawings by Jan Muller, one inscribed Cognita mori (E. K. J. Reznicek, ‘Jan Harmensz. Muller als Tekenaar’, NKJ , vol. 7, 1956, p. 115, no. 24, fig. 24 and p. 116, no. 26, fig. 25). (Back to text.)

[page 1.161]

2. For a similar costume (though without the elaborate feather in the beret) see ter Brugghen No. 6483 in this catalogue. (Back to text.)

3. HdG , loc. cit. (Back to text.)

4. Slive, loc. cit. (Back to text.)

5. Grimm, op. cit. , p. 200. (Back to text.)

6. HdG , loc. cit. (Back to text.)

7. E. Plietzsch, ‘Ausstellung holländischer Gemälde in der Londoner Akademie’, Kunstchronik, vol. 6, 1953, p. 123. (Back to text.)

8. Slive, op. cit. (Back to text.)

9. Slive, loc. cit. (Back to text.)

10. T. Borenius and J. V. Hodgson, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Elton Hall, London, 1924, p. 29, No. 24. (Back to text.)

Glossary

duim: (pouce) lit. thumb, a unit of measurement, 2.57 cm, or 1/11th of a voet
vanitas: A scene, usually a still life, which conveyed the futility of human endeavour in the face of mortality. The term is taken from the prophet of Ecclesiastes: ‘Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity … ’
voet: Lit. a foot. A unit of measurement: an Amsterdam foot was equivalent to 28.31 cm (11 inches)

Abbreviations

NKJ: Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, The Hague, 1947–9, 1955–

3 Other Abbreviations

RA: Royal Academy of Arts, London; Royal Academician
RKD: The Netherlands Institute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), The Hague

List of archive references cited

The Hague, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie: C. Hofstede de Groot, unpublished note

List of references cited

Borenius and Hodgson 1924: Borenius, T. and J. V. Hodgson, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Elton Hall, London 1924
Davies 1959: Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The British School, revised edn, London 1959
Davies and Gould 1970: Davies, Martin, revised by Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post‐Impressionists, etc., London 1970
Grimm 1989: Grimm, C., Frans Hals: Das Gesamtwerk, Stuttgart and Zürich 1989
Hofstede de Groot 1907–28: Hofstede de Groot, C., Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols (vols 9 and 10 are in German), London, Stuttgart and Paris 1907–28
Plietzsch 1953: Plietzsch, E., ‘Ausstellung holländischer Gemälde in der Londoner Akademie’, Kunstchronik, 1953, 6
Reznicek 1956: Reznicek, E. K. J., ‘Jan Harmensz. Muller als Tekenaar’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 1956, 7
Slive 1970–4: Slive, S., Frans Hals, London 1970–74

List of exhibitions cited

Dublin 1896: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 1896
Haarlem 1937: Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, Frans Hals Tentoonstelling, 1937
Haarlem 1962: Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, Frans Hals Exhibition, 1962
London, Royal Academy 1928: London, Royal Academy of Arts, Seventeenth Century Art, 1928
London 1952–3: London, Royal Academy of Arts, Dutch Pictures 1450‐1700, 1952–3
London, National Gallery, 1976: London, National Gallery, Art in Seventeenth–Century Holland, 1976
San Francisco, Toledo and Boston 1966–7: San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, The Age of Rembrandt, 1966–7
Washington, London and Haarlem 1989–90: Washington, National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum, Frans Hals, 1989–90

Explanatory Notes on the Catalogue

SEQUENCE The paintings are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the artist or school.

ATTRIBUTION A picture catalogued under the name of the artist is considered to be by him. ‘Attributed to’ qualifies the attribution. ‘Ascribed to’ indicates a greater degree of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ or ‘Follower of’ are self‐explanatory. ‘Style of’ indicates that the painting is an imitation or copy painted after the artist’s lifetime. A list of attributions which have been changed from the first edition of this catalogue (published in 1960) is given on pages 510–13.

INVENTORY NUMBER The National Gallery inventory number is to be found to the left of the picture title.

MEASUREMENTS These are given in centimetres, followed by inches in brackets. Height precedes width.

RIGHT and LEFT These indicate the viewer’s right and left, unless the context clearly implies the contrary.

BIOGRAPHIES MacLaren’s biographical notes on painters have been expanded and brought up to date when there is no accessible and reliable modern literature. Where such literature exists, these notes have been kept to a minimum.

REFERENCES The bibliographical references, though selective, include publications which appeared before mid‐1989. References to books and articles which appeared subsequently and which the author considered to be of importance are referred to within square brackets but could not be taken into account in the catalogue entries themselves.

LISTS AND INDEXES At the back of this volume are lists of paintings acquired since the last edition of this catalogue and changed attributions. There are also indexes to religious subjects, profane subjects, topography, previous owners, years of acquisition and inventory number.

ILLUSTRATIONS The plates of the paintings included in the catalogue are in the second volume, together with all the signatures which could be reproduced. The comparative plates are included in Volume 1.

[page 1.xiv]

VAN ‘van’ has been used in lower case throughout in accordance with The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. The ‘van’ has been omitted for certain artists as is customary, e.g. ‘Jacob van Ruisdael’, but ‘Ruisdael’.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ‘ op. cit. ’ may refer back to books and articles referred to under the artist’s biography (rather than in the particular catalogue entry).

CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S Unless another location is mentioned, the sales referred to took place in London.

CLEANING The cleaning of paintings which took place before 1945 is not referred to, unless the circumstances were exceptional.

CONDITION All the paintings have been examined during the preparation of this catalogue. In many cases the condition is described, sometimes in considerable detail. If the condition is not described, the painting can be presumed to be in good condition.

PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS There are separate headings for provenance and exhibitions in individual catalogue entries. In certain cases, when nineteenth‐century paintings were included in dealers’ exhibitions for example, these two sections have been conflated , .

VAN GOGH The National Gallery’s four paintings by Van Gogh (Inv. nos. 3861, 3862, 3863 and 4169) are not catalogued in this volume but in The French School by Cecil Gould.

CORNELIUS JOHNSON The one painting (Inv. no. 6280) in the National Gallery by Johnson, who was born in London of Dutch parents but moved to the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Civil War, is not included in this catalogue but in The British School by Martin Davies.

Explanatory note

This volume contains the illustrations for the catalogue of the Dutch School published in Volume 1.

The pictures and their attributions are discussed in detail in the catalogue; in this volume only the title, the artist (or attribution) and the inventory number are given.

At the end of the volume are plates of all the signatures that could be reproduced. In the interest of clarity some of these have been enlarged.

About this version

Version 1, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 14/10/2024 and database__16.xml dated 16/10/2024 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 14/10/2024. Structural mark-up applied to skeleton document in full; document updated to use external database of archival and bibliographic references; entries for NG6483, NG6458, NG830, NG4503, NG835, NG6444, NG212, NG54, NG221, NG672, NG1675, NG6350, NG990, NG2531, NG6442, NG871, NG1383, NG2568 and NG6522 proofread and prepared for publication; entries for NG1383, NG2568, NG54, NG5417, NG6458, NG6522, NG672 and NG835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.

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Permalink (this version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/087T-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version): https://data.ng.ac.uk/086W-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style: MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. "6458 Young Man holding a Skull (vanitas)". 1991, online version 1, October 17, 2024. https://data.ng.ac.uk/087T-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style: MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 6458 Young Man holding a Skull (vanitas). Online version 1, London: National Gallery, 2024. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/087T-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 22 December 2024).
MHRA style: MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 6458 Young Man holding a Skull (vanitas) (National Gallery, 1991; online version 1, 2024) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/087T-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 22 December 2024]