The military group portrait is a phenomenon that originated in Dutch art in the early 16th century. Throughout his life, Frans Hals executed several military group portraits, one of the most famous being The company of Captain Reinier Reael and Lieutenant Cornelis Michielsz Blaeuw (1633-1637). The painting is also known as The Meagre Company, because of the slim figures of the officers. In 1633, Hals received a commission from the St. George Civic Guard of Amsterdam under Captain Reael and Lieutenant Blaeuw to paint a military group portrait. However, due to a dispute between Hals and the officers, the painting was completed by Amsterdam painter, Pieter Codde in 1637. The disagreement, documented in a series of letters, sheds light on Hals’s process of painting. After creating the composition, Hals began to work from left to right. As the letters reveal, Hals made several trips to Amsterdam. Still, he had difficulty gathering all the officers for a sitting, which impaired his ability to finish the painting in time. Eventually, Hals suggested that all the officers come to Haarlem for a sitting; Reael and Blaeuw refused, and in turn, demanded that Hals immediately travel to Amsterdam to complete the work. For this reason, the sides ultimately parted ways, but from the exchange, it is clear that Hals needed the sitters’ presence at multiple stages of the work process. At first, Hals required the assembling of the entire group to conceive the composition, and later, he needed time with each sitter to create the individual portraits.
Hals created a complex composition, in which he arranged the sixteen figures in three planes. The standing men formed a strong vertical balance, which was offset by the slanted position of the weaponry. The composition of the grouping on the left side closely resembles another military group portrait by Hals, The Officers of St Adrian Militia Company (1633). Through a variety of poses, Hals’s composition generated a sense of drama and dynamics. The artist demonstrated his virtuosity through his ability to create textures and materials: silk sashes, intricate lace collars, chamois boots, and metal armors. He used the same approach for mustaches and hair; each strand is separated and carefully styled. The diversification of the hairstyles and facial hair adds to the individuality of each figure and gives an overall sense of vigor to the painting.
More than 200 years later, Hals’s mastery was observed by Vincent van Gogh during his visit to Amsterdam in 1885. He was particularly impressed by Hal’s understanding of color; in a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote that Hals had twenty-seven shades of black. In The Meagre Company, Van Gogh was especially taken by the flag bearer farthest on the left, and Hals’s ability to create a variety of materials using the same pearl-grey color. This ability also relates to the bright silvery daylight filling the space of the painting. The light displays the sharp facial features and reflects in the glasses, brocades, silks, metal armors, and weapons. The silver tonality in Hal’s painting was possibly inspired by the artwork of Utrecht Caravaggisti painter, Hendrick Terbrugghen.
