After a leisurely Dutch breakfast of a boiled egg, brown and/or raisin bread with cheese and ham, yoghurt, orange juice and coffee, Don headed out for some photos because it was a beautiful morning and the sun was shining.
Frans Hals the Elder (c. 1582 - 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium). He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art.
Hals began painting family scenes and soon became popular for his portraits and then for his group portraiture. The first phase is illustrated in the gallery to the left by three of his most familiar works from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. These are the Merry Drinker, the marriage portrait and The Jester.
In the Frans Hals Museum we saw the Laughing Boy and the group portraits in the gallery. Many of his portraits were of banquets or meetings of officers, guildsmen, or regents of organizations such as hospitals or alms houses.
Now we go to Amsterdam.