Two Singing Boys with a Lute and a Music Book

Two singing boys with a lute and a music book is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1625 and now in the Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe.

Painting

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1910, who wrote: "TWO BOYS SINGING. B. 98; M. 224 - The boy on the right is seen in a three-quarter view facing left. He is in dark clothes with a white collar and a plumed cap. He holds in his left hand a mandolin resting on the table, while he beats time with his right hand. He looks down to the left at an open music-book on the table. Behind him to the left is the head of another boy, who looks at the music and sings with him. Signed on the left at foot with the monogram; canvas, 26 inches by 20 1/2 inches."^[1]

Hals has "an accomplice" peering over his shoulder, and besides the other two paintings already mentioned, this theme of a main subject with a secondary witness was common to many of his paintings of the 1620s:

• 
  The Smoker, with an accomplice on the left and another in the background on the right
• 
  Two laughing boys with mug of beer, with an accomplice on the left
• 
  Yonker Ramp and his sweetheart, with an accomplice on the right
• 
  The evangelist Matthew and the angel, with an accomplice on the left

References

External links

• Information in the Web Gallery of Art

Frans Hals
Paintings	Portrait of a Woman Standing The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616 Shrovetide Revellers Portrait of a Woman Standing (Kassel) The Rommelpot Player Two Singing Boys with a Lute and a Music Book Catharina Both-van der Eem Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart Laughing Cavalier The Lute Player Laughing Boy with Flute Laughing Boy with a Flute Boy with a Glass and a Lute The Smoker The Fingernail Test The Gypsy Girl St. John St. Matthew St. Luke St. Mark Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword Laughing Boy Cunera van Baersdorp¨ Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa Portrait of Anna van der Aar Young Man with a Skull The Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1627 The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627 Portrait of a Woman in a Chair Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer Laughing Fisherboy Peeckelhaeringh The Merry Drinker Malle Babbe Smiling Fishergirl Fisher Boy with Basket The Fisher Boy Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen Cornelia Claesdr Voogt The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633 Portrait of a Man with a Beer Jug Portrait of a Man in a Yellowish-Gray Jacket Catharina Brugmans Feyntje Steenkiste Hylck Boner Meagre Company Portrait of a Woman (Marie Larp) Pieter Tjarck Claes Duyst van Voorhout Maria Pietersdr Olycan Maritge Claesdr. Voogt The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639 Portrait of Dorothea Berck Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse
Catalogs raisonné	1974 1989
Other	Dutch Golden Age painting Haarlem School (painting) Tronie Naturalism (art) Flemish Baroque painting
Related	Karel van Mander (teacher) Dirck Hals (brother) Harmen Hals (son) Frans Hals Junior (son) Jan Hals (son) Reynier Hals (son) Nicolaes Hals (son) Théophile Thoré-Bürger Seymour Slive Claus Grimm
Public collections	Frans Hals Museum Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Mauritshuis