The Laughing Toper c. 18th century

Frans Hals painted The Laughing Toper with oil on canvas in the early 17th century. Hals was a master of capturing fleeting expressions, and his loose brushwork brings an incredible sense of immediacy to this portrait. He applied the paint alla prima, wet on wet, meaning that the visible brushstrokes are not just a record of movement, but also of time. The texture of the canvas subtly influences the appearance of the artwork, with the weave showing through the thin layers of paint. Hals’s technique mirrored the changing social status of artists at the time, in which the value of a painting was measured by the artist's skill and creativity, as much as the amount of labor involved in its production. Hals made the work look easy, but only a true master could achieve such an effect. Paintings like this remind us that art is not just about the subject matter, but about the way it is made.