Hals, Singing Boy with Flute

it's as if he's saying no no no more I don't want to play yet another song you imagine that he's been singing and playing the flute so beautifully that his audience is asking for more well look at the pleasure on his face he looks so self-satisfied he's just turned away his hand is up the other hand is still on the flute as if he's just stopped with his finger in one of its holes I can't possibly play another or he could just be pausing and singing which is a standard type that we see in 17th century Dutch painting the thing of course that carries this painting is its brushwork it sends it informality the sense of the momentary the way in which the fluidity of the artists hand moving through this canvas and the motion of the figure himself are so beautifully brought together I thought you were going to say what carries this painting is the feather okay because it's so wild as giant white feather that completes this circular form that starts down by his mouth there's all that space above so that his face is even slightly lower than Center but also the sense that this space to move in that the artist has only captured this one frame and that there's plenty of other things that are going around outside of what we can see you don't normally think about halls as a colorist but the colors are fabulous and as painting these move purples and the blue of his sleeve that just comes out a little bit around his wrists and touches of blue in the green on his left shoulder and then touches of bluish white around his wrists all of which tends to highlight the ruddy warm color of the flute itself and of course of his cheeks it is just a wonderfully playful moment so expertly caught and yet the artist makes the image look so easy to create his face turns away and yet we really feel very engaged with this figure an incredible sense of bravura and immediacy and those are the things that Hulse is known for you