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Frans Hals, 'Portrait of a Woman with a Fan', about 1640

About the work

This painting demonstrates Frans Hals’s gift for creating lively and animated portraits that suggest distinctive personalities. We don't know who the woman in this compelling work is, but her elegant dress and jewellery indicate that, like many of Hals’s patrons, she may have been the wife of a wealthy citizen of Haarlem.

Hals has paid great attention to the detail of her costume, which is characteristic of the period around 1640, when this picture was probably painted. She holds an expensive fan made of feathers, set in a gold mount and suspended from a gold chain. This object functions as a status symbol but also serves to give the woman’s pose movement. She pulls playfully on the chain with one hand and holds the fan’s mount delicately between the thumb and ring finger of the other – a position that could change momentarily.

Key facts

Full title
Portrait of a Woman with a Fan
Artist
Frans Hals
Artist dates
1582/3 - 1666
Date made
about 1640
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
79.8 × 59 cm
Acquisition credit
Salting Bequest, 1910
Inventory number
NG2529
Location
Room 23
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners
Frame
17th-century Dutch Frame

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Frans Hals

(Showing 6 of 8 works)
A Family Group in a Landscape
A Family Group in a Landscape
Frans Hals
We are looking at a family group, a mother and father surrounded by their seven children with a nursemaid holding the latest baby. There are two centres of attention among the sitters, formed around the two youngest children – just what you might expect in a large family.These poses and interacti...
Not on display
Portrait of a Man holding Gloves
Portrait of a Man holding Gloves
Frans Hals
The sitter in this portrait is clearly a prosperous man, conventionally but expensively dressed in the style of the mid-1640s. Beyond that, no evidence has survived – we don’t know who he is. Nevertheless, this portrait is a good example of Hals’s ability both to capture a convincing likeness and...
Not on display
Portrait of a Man in his Thirties
Portrait of a Man in his Thirties
Frans Hals
An unknown sitter leans slightly backwards. It’s an unconventional pose, but one which gives a strong impression of immediacy and informality: he seems to have pushed back his chair and turned towards us. The sense of spontaneity is enhanced by the way Hals has manipulated our gaze. His concern w...
Room 23
Portrait of a Middle-Aged Woman with Hands Folded
Portrait of a Middle-Aged Woman with Hands Folded
Frans Hals
The sitter looms out of this painting in a rather imposing way, filling much more of the picture space than do the figures in most of Hals’s portraits. However, since it was first made, the picture seems to have been cut down at the sides and the bottom, amplifying the sense of the sitter’s size...
Not on display
Portrait of Jean de la Chambre at the Age of 33
Portrait of Jean de la Chambre at the Age of 33
Frans Hals
Holding a quill in his right hand, the man in this portrait has turned his head towards us, creating the feeling that we have just interrupted his work. He gives us a questioning look, as if he is waiting for an explanation for the interruption. The sitter is Jean de la Chambre (1605/6–1668), a d...
Room 23
Portrait of Marie Larp
Portrait of Marie Larp
Frans Hals
An eighteenth-century label stuck on the back of this painting identifies the sitter as Marie Larp. It forms a pendant to the portrait of her husband, the Haarlem silk dyer Pieter Tjarck. The pair must have commissioned their portraits from Frans Hals soon after their wedding in 1634, when Hals w...
Not on display
Young Man holding a Skull (Vanitas)
Young Man holding a Skull (Vanitas)
Frans Hals
A life-size figure stands before us, holding a skull in one hand and gesticulating with the other. Although he faces us frontally he looks to his left, and it is the gesture of his right hand that focuses us: his fingers seem to project out from the canvas into our space.This is one of Hals’s mos...
Room 23
Young Woman with a Display of Fruit and Vegetables
Young Woman with a Display of Fruit and Vegetables
Frans Hals
This is the only surviving example of a work in which we can be sure that Hals collaborated with another painter. It is signed by his Haarlem colleague Claes van Heussen, who rendered the market stall laden with fruit and vegetables. Hals painted the young woman holding a pair of scales. Caught i...
Room 23
You've viewed 6 of 8 works