In the 13th episode of 'Frans Hals Paintings—The Podcast’, I discuss Frans Hals' c. early-1630s work The Fisher Boy, which is in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Seymour Slive numbered the work number 71, in his 1974 catalogue. It was accepted by Wilhelm von Bode, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, William Valentiner, though not Claus Grimm. It was included in the solo Hals exhibitions of the twentieth century of 1937 and 1962, yet only in Washington and not Haarlem and London, for the 1989-1990 exhibition. This painting is a quintessential example of Hals’ skill in capturing the essence of his subjects with both realism and expressive brushwork, with the ever-so-famous ‘virtuosity’ of Hals present, throughout the foreground of the canvas in the clothing of the boy.

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