OLD Master Portrait Study in Oils

For this study I chose a portrait by Frans Hals from Seymour Slive’s 1989 catalog on the artist. I set up my canvas right next to the page to work sight-size. The study was painted in one three hour session working wet into wet. Below is a description of the painting from the National Gallery’s site. Holding a quill in his right hand, the man in this portrait has turned his head towards us, creating the feeling that we have just interrupted his work. He gives us a questioning look, as if he is waiting for an explanation for the interruption. The sitter is Jean de la Chambre (1605/6–1668), a distinguished calligrapher and master of the French School in Haarlem. Compared to the ambitious large-scale portraits of members of the ruling classes for which Frans Hals is known, this is a relatively unassuming – but nonetheless powerful – work. It was painted as a model for an engraving executed by the Haarlem printmaker Jonas Suyderhoef. The engraving was used as the frontispiece for a book published by Jean de la Chambre in the same year, which contained six engraved plates of examples of his calligraphy. Materials used in this video were: 6 x 4.25” Canson oil paper Titanium white, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, raw Sienna, cadmium red light, burnt Sienna, raw umber, ivory black, cobalt blue. Bristle filbert and nylon round brushes Linseed oil Thank you for watching!