Shrovetide Revellers

Shrovetide Revellers is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1615 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The painting shows people enjoying festivities at Shrovetide (Dutch: Carnaval).

Painting

The painting shows the face of an elegantly dressed smiling woman raising her right finger to make a point, while a man with a string of worst around his neck grabs her shoulder to whisper in her ear. Another amused gentlemen leans on his shoulder and listens to their banter. Some claim these are the Baroque theatre characters Hans Worst and Peeckelhaeringh. Behind them other people are talking and laughing.

Provenance

The painting was first documented by Wilhelm von Bode in 1883, and after that was included in most catalogs of Hals' works, including by Ernst Wilhelm Moes in 1909, Hofstede de Groot in 1910, by W.R. Valentiner in 1923, and by Gerrit David Gratama in 1946. The MET lists an Amsterdam sale entry from 1765 mentioning a genre work of Vasten-Avond, or Shrovetide, and Slive mentions a period drawing by Mathys van den Bergh.

The female wears much more brightly colored clothing than any of Hals other sitters, and shows a strong resemblance to the young woman portrayed in Hals' Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart. Both are considered to be genre works today, so the models could be anyone in Hals circle such as his children or pupils. In his 1989 catalog of the international Frans Hals exhibition, Slive included a full color photo of this work to demonstrate Hals' "love of life". The painting itself could not be included in the exhibition because it can never be lent out.^[1] It is interesting to note that in the same year that Slive was writing his exhibition catalog, Claus Grimm rejected the attribution of this painting to Frans Hals, though he conceded it was probably after a painting by Hals, calling it a copy of a lost original.^[2]

Hals' positioning of the figures are related to two other known paintings:

• 
  Hals' Merry Trio (lost in World War II)
• 
  A period copy, situated outside under the moon

References

External links

• Media related to Shrovetide revellers at Wikimedia Commons

Frans Hals
Paintings	Portrait of a Woman Standing The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616 Shrovetide Revellers Portrait of a Woman Standing (Kassel) The Rommelpot Player Two Singing Boys with a Lute and a Music Book Catharina Both-van der Eem Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart Laughing Cavalier The Lute Player Laughing Boy with Flute Laughing Boy with a Flute Boy with a Glass and a Lute The Smoker The Fingernail Test The Gypsy Girl St. John St. Matthew St. Luke St. Mark Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword Laughing Boy Cunera van Baersdorp¨ Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa Portrait of Anna van der Aar Young Man with a Skull The Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1627 The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627 Portrait of a Woman in a Chair Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer Laughing Fisherboy Peeckelhaeringh The Merry Drinker Malle Babbe Smiling Fishergirl Fisher Boy with Basket The Fisher Boy Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen Cornelia Claesdr Voogt The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633 Portrait of a Man with a Beer Jug Portrait of a Man in a Yellowish-Gray Jacket Catharina Brugmans Feyntje Steenkiste Hylck Boner Meagre Company Portrait of a Woman (Marie Larp) Pieter Tjarck Claes Duyst van Voorhout Maria Pietersdr Olycan Maritge Claesdr. Voogt The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639 Portrait of Dorothea Berck Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse
Catalogs raisonné	1974 1989
Other	Dutch Golden Age painting Haarlem School (painting) Tronie Naturalism (art) Flemish Baroque painting
Related	Karel van Mander (teacher) Dirck Hals (brother) Harmen Hals (son) Frans Hals Junior (son) Jan Hals (son) Reynier Hals (son) Nicolaes Hals (son) Théophile Thoré-Bürger Seymour Slive Claus Grimm
Public collections	Frans Hals Museum Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Mauritshuis