Laughing Boy with a Flute

Provenance

In his 1910 catalog of Frans Hals works Hofstede de Groot wrote: "32. A LAUGHING BOY WITH A FLUTE. B. 118; M. 230. Half-length; life size, almost in full face. The line of the shoulders rises to the left. The head is also almost in full face, but slightly inclined to the left. The long hair falls down, but a lock dangles just above the right shoulder. The eyes look at the spectator. The left hand holds a flute. Light-grey background. Broadly painted. The ground shows through the paint. A life-like rendering. Circular panel, 15 inches across. In the Schwerin Museum, 1882 catalogue, No. 444"

This painting is a pendant to Boy with a glass and a pewter jug and the pair has long been considered to be part of a series on the five senses, where this one symbolizes hearing and the drinking boy symbolizes taste: