Two Fisherboys : On Authenticity and Innovation in the Work of Frans Hals (1582/83-1666)

In this edition of Phoebus Focus, Lotte Kokkedee and Anna Tummers’ analysis extends beyond technology. They position Two Fisherboys in the context of Hals’ oeuvre. After all, are these seemingly innocent children what they appear to be? The boy smiling mischievously looks like he’s putting a crab in his friend’s basket. Is the painter actually alluding to a Dutch proverb ‘een pad in iemands korf zetten’ (literally translated as to put a toad in someone’s basket, which means landing someone in hot water), and is this charming scene actually one full of playful cunning? The happy anticipation of a roguish joke while performing their hard labour? After all, the life of a fisherman was no laughing matter. This makes Two Fisherboys not only an intimate portrait of youthful spontaneity, but above all a masterful embodiment of the condition humane, captured in Hals’inimitable style.