FRANS HALS MUSEUM HOF

Founded in 1606, this former hospice for the elderly, built by Lieven de Key or Jacob van Campen, hosted the last hours of Frans Hals' life. Restored by the municipality and transformed into a museum in 1913, it possesses the typical charm of Haarlem hofjes: low houses reserved for boarders surrounding a small, quiet courtyard, and the main building housing large ceremonial rooms overlooking the large courtyard. Small-paned windows diffuse a soft light that bathes the works of the Golden Age masters and recreates the atmosphere of religious mystery so typical of so many Dutch interior paintings. The museum is now housed in two buildings: Hof and Hal, a 7-minute walk away.

But let's move on to the superb Frans Hals collection. Of the six corporate paintings by the Haarlem master, five are on display here (room 12), depicting companies on parade or banqueting around a table. These five canvases, painted between 1616 and 1639, illustrate the evolution he brought to this type of painting, which went from being static to becoming more expressive and lively. Of the group portraits, a genre in which Frans Hals particularly distinguished himself, we can still admire, in rooms 15 and 18, Les Régents de l'hôpital Sainte-Elisabeth, from 1641, and above all the Portrait des régentes de l'hospice des vieillards, from 1664. These works reveal a change in the painter's psychology. Bright, cheerful colors give way to black, and cheerfulness and exuberance are replaced by austerity. His gaze on his regents, who refused him tobacco and wine at the end of his life, is devoid of benevolence, and tracks, through their emaciated bodies, the hypocrisy of a self-righteous society whose rigidity cannot mask its complacency (the dean's puffed cheeks).

Although the collection of individual portraits is more limited, with only three on display (an archdeacon, one of his earliest works, a burgomaster and the burgomaster's wife), the museum remains a vibrant tribute to Hals' talent and his incisive view of the people of his time. The Frans Hals Museum is also a place of discovery for its high-quality temporary exhibitions, which are also well worth a visit. Finally, the history of the city of Haarlem and its inhabitants is also highlighted. A must for art and history lovers.