Frans Hals Painting from 1623

    What a fun image for this week!   Here we have the great Dutch painter Frans Hals' oil on canvas painting of a couple obviously having a great time together.   The title of the painting is interesting.  One of my sources titles it:  Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart, with another giving it the title: Young Man and Woman in an Inn.   I have also seen titles where the woman is called, Wife.  Hals painted it in 1623 and it is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
   The composition is amazing.  All of the essential components are featured inside a band extending diagonally from his hand down the format to the dog's head, with the two human faces dead center.
   Notice the interesting white shape created by her long "lace" cuff.  Hals has recreated that shape with slight variations several times, I have counted 7. And I love the deep turquoise color of his sleeve being re-picked up as feathers on his hat and swinging down to embrace her head. 
   But what I like the most is HER.  While he is lifting his hand and arm in some unknown gesture, she is looking right straight at US. We are there, in 1623, three hundred ninety six years ago!  It looks like we all are having great fun.  What a difference it makes for her to be including us, how much more personal.   What do you think?  I would love to read the story you make up concerning this happy couple.   Please write, as many more things can be imagined about this fun painting.
I wait!
   Make Art a part of your life,  it's a beautiful thing to do!

Comments

  1. charguthJune 26, 2019 at 5:27 PM

    A happy couple indeed, and such decorative dress. He includes the dog in his merriment with a gentle hand under the dog's chin. Could he be the entertainment at this inn? There appears to be a drapery behind them.The faded man in the lower right seems to be at a lower level, but he is looking up in the same direction as the main character. Is the woman really enthralled with him, or is she just patronizing? I want to know what the fellow is holding in his hand. Not a gun, but it must be important. There certainly was fun to be had in 1623!! I want to stop in at that inn and see what's really happening!!

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