Portrait of Jasper Schade van Vestrum by France Huls

The portrait of Jasper Schade van Vestrum is a perfect example of the late work of Frans Hals. The painting is distinguished by the subtlety of psychological characteristics and picturesque craftsmanship. Yasper Shade, being Judge of Utrecht, held a very high position in the society. The artist created the image of a young, attractive, though not a strong-willed man dressed richly, but not strikingly. However, the judge’s clever face, on which a sad smile wanders, already bears the imprint of bitterness and disappointment. It seems that behind the external well-being this gentleman hides a dangerous illness or deep dissatisfaction with life.

The color composition of the painting is based on tense contrasts of black and white tones, tinted with rare red-brown spots. On this canvas, the finest transitions of carnation are especially advantageous when compared with the reserved-cold colors, which are filled with the outfit of the model and the background of the portrait, sustained in the dark olive scale. Endowed with a multitude of gradations, the black color of Huls has lost its gravity and deafness here, becoming expressively almost equal to other colors of the spectrum. Representing a person is extremely realistic, the Dutch painter does not magnify the portrait, giving him the opportunity to be himself, even in the customary parade cloth.