Meagre Company
Hals, Frans; Codde, Pieter Jacobs
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Alternate file
Alternative Title
Militia Company of District XI under the Command of Captain Reynier Reael, Known as 'The Meagre Company'
Date
1633-1637Description
Overall view of right side of painting; A commission for a civic guard portrait (schuttersstuk) was rarely granted to a painter from outside the city. Quite exceptionally, Frans Hals (from Haarlem), was asked to paint this group portrait. However, he soon found himself at odds with the guardsmen, and the Amsterdam painter Pieter Codde had to step in to finish the seven figures on the right. Known for his small-scale, very smoothly and finely executed works, Codde nevertheless imitated Hals’s loose style as best he could. Because the men are thinner than the men portrayed in other, later, Amsterdam schutterstukken hanging near this painting, the piece was later nicknamed the "meagre [lean] company". Besides the ensign and the seated men, the names of the other officers are unknown today. Source: Rijksmuseum [website]; www.rijksmuseum.nl/en (accessed 5/19/2015)
Type of Work
painting (visual work)Subject
military or war, portrait, schutterij, group portrait, militia, Seventeenth century, Baroque
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only