Focus on this artwork and explain the Style.
The casual expression on his face and the painting’s in-the-moment feel is reminiscent of (and a pre-cursor to) impressionism. The hatching is a unique feature of the painting, and one that Hals employs sparingly. He also used the end of his paintbrush to create forms in the wet paint. Hans worked quickly but did work in layers with his paint. This meant that he had to wait for one layer to dry before putting another on top. He would first use a layer of light paint to prime his canvas. These base layers, or grounds, could be white, ochre, brown, or gray. This created more intricate shades of color than a plain white base would. His paint strokes are irregular, going from thin to thick with circular forms and quick slashes that are more noticeable and give a sense of movement.
Hals preferred to use affordable materials that were easily acquired rather than harder-to-find and more expensive materials like lapis lazuli and gold leaf. He was more focused on how his paintings looked and less on what he used to compose them. Most of his genre and portrait paintings are done in front of plain backgrounds with no other elements (trees, flowers, fruit, etc.), are moderately sized, and rarely depict a full length figure.
genre Hals impressionism lapis lazuli