Franz Hals Museum, 1

Perhaps half of the Franz Hals Museum is about the context in which Hals developed, and thus Haarlem's art scene. Hals was an innovator, and it is interesting to see that his innovations had antecedents and where they came from.

After our long walk we are at last at the Frans Hals Museum,
formerly, and in his day, an old men's home; as fashions
changed, Hals' finances declined to bankruptcy, as did
Rembrandt's; the Haarlem city council provided him with
an annual allowance, and commissions, so that he never
became a resident of the home

Still life; we were hungry, so began our museum tour at the  museum 
restaurant with sausages in flaky pastries; and then split the apple pie...
would you like some cream on the pie, madame?

As you'll see in the next post, I do bear a striking resemblance to Hals...

The tour proper begins with a 15 minute multi-media presentation on Hals,
his artistic background, achievement and influence, and on the museum itself

Not to be missed for its representations of famous works not at this museum
(explained next post)

Maueten van Heemskerck, St. Luke Painting the Madonna and Child, 1532;
according to legend, St. Luke was a painter and thus the patron saint of painters;
we wondered what kind of commission you'd get for this sort of painting...

Rene Sance, Gimme A Little Head, 1527

We love these Bosch-type works, this one by ... Mandijn, Antwerp, Temptations 
of St. Anthony, 1558

Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, Monk Touching A Nun,
1591; first, you've got your Protestant view, namely, the
debauchery inherent in the orders of Romish Christianity;
then your Catholic view, namely, a nun accused of being
pregnant, tested: if she gave milk, she was condemned...
instead she gave wine...from which we get the proverb,
in vino, veritas; nyuk, nyuk, nyuk

What group portraits looked like before Rembrandt and Hals... Jan van Scorel,
Twelve Members of the Jerusalem Brotherhood of  Haarlem, 1527; all these
guys had their passports stamped "Jersusalem"

Banquet of Members of the Haarlem Civic Guard, 1583, Cornelis van Haarlem;
a generation or two before Rembrandt and Hals, one can already see a little life
injected into the group portraits

Muy importante...enlarge to view... Jan Breughel the Younger's Allegory on the 
Tulip Trade, 1640; macroeconomics in art; well worth studying; the first great
capitalist bubble...burst!

Gerrit Adriaenz Berckheydge, The Great Market in Haarlem...1698...hasn't
changed that much...really

The Franz Hals Museum has a doll house, too, which Vicki said compared
favorably with the Rijksmuseum's

Some say Judith Leyster was a pupil of Hals'; some say not;
but she clearly had mastered his approach...I'd spot this as a
Hals anytime: Peeckelhearing, 1629

Jan Steen, A Village Fair, 1629; we love the moralistic and storytelling Jan Steen
as much as we love Hals

Jan Breughel the Younger? I lost the label! Anyhow a copy of Peter Breughel
Elder's 100 Proverbs, the original of which we have seen in the Gemaldegalerie
in Berlin; incredible, nonetheless

Interior of the old men's home...something to look forward to...

Thus

More Haarlem Scenes

After a few days' respite to soothe my aching re-injured rib and Vicki's sore (natural) knee, we ventured back to Haarlem, principally to see the Franz Hals Museum. It was Sunday, free parking in the city (otherwise, 3.90E per hour at the meter), and so we parked in a residential area a few blocks north of the centrum. Unfortunately, the museum is a few blocks south of the centrum, and our course took us around the periphery of the centrum, rather than through it. Not inexplicably (!). In any case, walking the long way to the museum afforded many opportunities to see more of Haarlem, which is indeed an interesting place.

Quintessential

Thus

A little Art Nouveau here and there

Thus

Bridge operator

Outside a restaurant we thought we'd maybe
skip...and then we thought, hey, what if Picasso
had been a chef and not an artist...would have
made for some interesting still lifes

In time, all (interesting) buildings become
restaurants, episode #18,735

Sea-faring bench

Typical modern urban bridge with massive counterweight

Dog in the gutter

Even the smallest plots are well tended

Christianized poppy...Greek cross, that is

Dollhouse in the window of a quilting shop

Another street scene

Musical instrument shop

Now done with Franz Hals (next posts) we are back in the
Grote Markt

Time for more sushi for Mark (and vlammse frites for Vicki)

And more interesting sights and shops

Thus

Back at Amsterdamse Bos, Vicki's first ussie; with our new
selfie stick...thanks, girls

Haarlem Grote Kerk 2

Continuing the perambulation of the Grote Kerk...

Way-old map of Haarlem; note star-shaped left perimeter

Civic history at the top of the choir...discusses a siege when the cats and dogs
of the city were called "roast game"

Window--way different from Medieval, Catholic

A bit of elevation and vaulting in the chancel

One of several lists of the church's deacons...
this one, 1805 to 1877

Many churches have tomb slabs in their flooring...

The Grote Kerk in Haarlem is floored in nothing but tomb slabs

Pelican lecturn near the altar

Altar, choir

In the choir

Bust of William I of Orange

Dog whipper's chapel: unruly dogs were whipped by city
officials

"Them Fokkers was flyin' Messerschmitts!" A Fokker monoplane flies above 
Haarlem in 1911; August 31, 1911, specifically, Queen Wilhemina's birthday, 
with aircraft designer Anthony Fokker himself piloting his "Spin"; Fokker was 
Dutch, although more infamously associated with the Germans in the two world
wars

Interesting church