Describe the characteristics of the Importance in this artwork's Context.
Perhaps the portrait of the alderman is Hals' only painting in Flanders. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp also considers it to be Hals' most valuable painting in the Netherlands. Because of the dark palette, the thin paint application, the broad and virtuoso brushwork, but also because of the psychological transparency, the portrait has a special artistic value. This value is augmented by the fact that the portrait of Stephanus Geraerdts holds a switching function within Hals' oeuvre. It is the starting point of Hals' mature painting style at the end of his career. In addition, the portrait provides insight into the self-image of the seventeenth-century elite.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp