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The Credit Suisse Exhibition

Frans Hals

Until 21 January 2024

Rooms 1–8

Four hundred years since they were painted, Frans Hals’s portraits still breathe with life. There’s the hint of a smile, a hand resting nonchalantly on a hip, and just occasionally, a burst of laughter.

Hals was one of the most sought-after painters of his generation. A gifted artist whose deft brushwork was unparalleled, he built his reputation on a new style of portrait – highly unusual in his time – that showed relaxed, lively sitters, often smiling, and even laughing.

17th-century Dutch audiences were enthralled, and the popularity of his portraits earned him the status of Haarlem’s famous son.

This exhibition, the first major retrospective of Hals in more than thirty years, means a new generation can discover why he deserves his place as one of the greatest painters in Western art.

Some 50 of Hals’s finest works will be brought together, including the exceptional, first-ever loan of his most famous picture, ‘The Laughing Cavalier’ (1624), from the Wallace Collection.

From small works to large group portraits, genre scenes, and marriage portraits reunited for the first time from international collections, visitors will see the very best of his life’s work.

Exhibition organised by the National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin with the special collaboration of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Detail from Frans Hals, 'The Lute Player', before 1623–4. Musée du Louvre, Paris © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Mathieu Rabeau 

Ticket prices

Free for Members

Members enjoy free, unlimited entry. Join today 

Standard admission

From £20

Concessions available.

We recommend allowing 50–60 minutes for your visit to the exhibition.

A maximum of six tickets can be booked in the same transaction. For larger group bookings please contact tickets@nationalgallery.org.uk.

With additional support from

The Thompson Family Charitable Trust

 

Gregory Annenberg Weingarten

 

Katrin Henkel
Marco Voena

‘Do not miss this sumptuous, spirit-lifting show’
★★★★★ The Times

‘No words can do it justice. It must be seen to be believed’
★★★★★ The Observer

★★★★
The Telegraph, Evening Standard

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