Frans HalsDutch, 1581–1666Gipsy Girl
La Bohémienne
About the painting
The Gypsy Girl, also known as Gypsy Girl or Young Woman (La Bohémienne) (and sometimes erroneously referred to as Malle Babbe) is an oil-on-wood painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1628–1630, and now in the Louvre Museum, in Paris. It is a tronie, a study of facial expression and unusual costume, rather than a commissioned portrait.
The display of cleavage was not a common feature of costume seen in public in Hals' time and place. For this reason various art historians have assumed a painting of a prostitute was intended. From the 19th century the Louvre titled the painting La Bohémienne, meaning a female gypsy, but there is no reason to assume the model was Romani.
Particulars
- Accession number
- MI 926
Meanwhile, in the life of Frans Hals
The whole life1612–1624
Service in the Haarlem civic guard
From 1612 to 1624 Hals serves in the local civic guard (schutterij); he will paint his first “militia picture” in 1616 and his last in 1639.
1617–1666 · Workplace
Haarlem
December 1624
Son born: Jacob Hals
1626
Pupil: Adriaen van Ostade
1627
Son born: Reynier Hals
1628
Son born: Nicolaes Hals
