Frans Hals Quotes

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Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 29, 2026 / Updated on June 29, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000

Quotes by Frans Hals

No securely authenticated quotations by Frans Hals are known to survive. Unlike artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Hals left no surviving diary, letters or written artistic statements, so quotations sometimes circulated online under his name should be treated with caution.1

For that reason, this section is deliberately brief. It is more accurate to say that we know Frans Hals through his paintings and through what contemporaries, later artists and modern scholars wrote about him.

Quotes Attributed to Frans Hals

The following quotations are sometimes attributed to Frans Hals in unsourced quotation collections. I would not present them as authenticated sayings, but they may be useful if clearly labelled as traditional or unverified.

My inclination to paint is almost irresistible.

Attributed to Frans Hals; unverified 2

I paint because I delight in painting.

Attributed to Frans Hals; unverified 2

I would rather paint eyes than churches.

Attributed to Frans Hals; unverified 2

Quotes About Frans Hals

His paintings are imbued with such force and vitality that he seems to defy nature herself with his brush.

Theodorus Schrevelius 3

They seem to live and breathe.

Theodorus Schrevelius 3

How dashingly Frans paints the people from life!

Samuel Ampzing 4

A large-scale piece of painting done most boldly from life.

Samuel Ampzing, on Hals' civic guard portrait 4

Painted most vividly.

Aernout van Buchel, on a portrait by Frans Hals 5

A marvel at painting portraits or counterfeits which appear very rough and bold.

Cornelis de Bie 6

When seen from a distance, they seem to lack nothing but life itself.

Cornelis de Bie 6

The most excellent portrait painter.

Matthias Scheits 7

As naturally as if he lived, thanks to Hals.

Arnold Moonen 8

What a joy it is to see a Frans Hals like that.

Vincent van Gogh 9

Hands that lived, but were not finished.

Vincent van Gogh, on Rembrandt and Hals 9

Eyes, nose, mouth done with the first brushstrokes, without any sort of retouching.

Vincent van Gogh 9

Frans Hals is a colourist among the colourists.

Vincent van Gogh 10

Frans Hals must have had twenty-seven blacks.

Vincent van Gogh 10

Rembrandt and Hals, didn't they use black? And Velázquez?

Vincent van Gogh 10

Frans Hals painted portraits; nothing, nothing, nothing but that.

Vincent van Gogh 11

But it is worth as much as Dante's Paradise and the Michelangelos and Raphaels.

Vincent van Gogh 11

I was particularly struck by the Frans Hals, The Fisher Boy.

Vincent van Gogh 12

Frans Hals, c'est un moderne.

Belgian art journal, 1883 13

Begin with Frans Hals, copy and study Frans Hals.

John Singer Sargent, attributed advice to a student 14

Leave Velázquez till you have got all you can out of Frans Hals.

John Singer Sargent, attributed advice to a student 14

Frans Hals was one of the most sought-after painters of his generation.

National Gallery, London 15

Admired for the dazzling virtuosity of his brushwork.

National Gallery, London 15

He introduced an entirely new style of portraiture.

Rijksmuseum 16

His virtuoso brushwork bringing about nothing less than a revolution in painting.

Rijksmuseum 16

Hals had a unique ability to bring his paintings to life with colour and broad brushstrokes.

Mauritshuis 17

Frans Hals ranks among the most outstanding Dutch painters of the 17th century.

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 18

He was the first artist in Holland to paint social outsiders as individuals in portrait format.

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 18

This work is a pinnacle of Hals' bold and loose 'rough' style.

Rijksmuseum, on The Merry Drinker 19

The brushstrokes criss-cross the canvas, creating the impression of rapid execution.

Rijksmuseum, on The Merry Drinker 19

References

  1. Ruth Bernard Yeazell, review of Steven Nadler, The Portraitist: Frans Hals and His World, The New York Review of Books, 2023. The review notes Nadler's point that, apart from paintings, no diary, letters or written documents by Hals' own hand survive.
  2. Traditional quotations attributed to Frans Hals in unsourced quotation collections. No contemporary documentary source has been found for these sayings; they should not be presented as authenticated quotations.
  3. Theodorus Schrevelius, Harlemias, 1647/1648; translated and discussed in RKD Studies, Frans Hals and his Workshop, section 3.5, "Hals's recognition by his contemporaries."
  4. Samuel Ampzing, Beschryvinge ende lof der stadt Haerlem in Hollandt, Haarlem, 1628; translated and discussed in RKD Studies, Frans Hals and his Workshop, section 3.5.
  5. Aernout van Buchel, travel notes, 10 January 1628; quoted in RKD Studies, Frans Hals and his Workshop, section 3.5.
  6. Cornelis de Bie, Het gulden cabinet vande edel vry schilder const, Antwerp, 1661; translated and discussed in RKD Studies, Frans Hals and his Workshop, section 3.5.
  7. Matthias Scheits, note on the frontispiece of his copy of Karel van Mander's Schilder-Boeck, 28 May 1679; translated and discussed in RKD Studies, Frans Hals and his Workshop, section 3.5.
  8. Arnold Moonen, Poëzy, Amsterdam, 1700; poem dated 1680, translated and discussed in RKD Studies, Frans Hals and his Workshop, section 3.5.
  9. Vincent van Gogh, letter to Theo van Gogh, Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 13 October 1885, Van Gogh Letters Project, letter 535.
  10. Vincent van Gogh, letter to Theo van Gogh, Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 20 October 1885, Van Gogh Letters Project, letter 536.
  11. Vincent van Gogh, letter to Émile Bernard, Arles, Monday, 30 July 1888, Van Gogh Letters Project, letter 651.
  12. Vincent van Gogh, letter to Theo van Gogh, Antwerp, on or about Thursday, 26 November 1885, Van Gogh Letters Project, letter 544.
  13. "Frans Hals, c'est un moderne," quotation from a Belgian art journal, 1883, discussed in Frans Hals Museum exhibition materials for Frans Hals and the Moderns and in Apollo Magazine, "The modern painters who were mad about Frans Hals," 2019.
  14. Advice attributed to John Singer Sargent and reproduced in accounts of Sargent's teaching and admiration for Hals. Wording varies; use as an attributed quotation rather than a primary documented statement.
  15. National Gallery, London, Frans Hals exhibition catalogue description, 2023.
  16. Rijksmuseum, Frans Hals exhibition catalogue description, 2024.
  17. Mauritshuis, "Frans Hals (1582/83–1666)," artist biography.
  18. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Frans Hals: Master of the Fleeting Moment, exhibition description, 2024.
  19. Rijksmuseum collection record for Frans Hals, The Merry Drinker, c. 1628–1630.