Of all the artists who worked in the Netherlands in the 17th century, Frans Hals – along with Rembrandt and Vermeer – is the best known. Nevertheless, he never achieved the popularity of his two contemporaries. One of the reasons for this might have been that he did not paint history paintings but only portraits and that he usually did not show people – as was the fashion – in a serious manner. Frans Hals' pictures are populated by figures who laugh heartily, grin, and can hardly hold themselves together for joy. Figures that at the same time are not consumed into caricature, like the bowling figures in Jan Steen's paintings, which served as a moral admonition to the lower classes: "You look so ugly when you laugh!" To Frans Hals' contemporaries, laughing seemed improper and was a sign that someone belonged to the lower class.
Art has long been seen as serious, with the belief that "good art must come out of suffering" persisting. Rembrandt's gloomy paintings, depicting dark themes, reinforce this idea. Laughter, by contrast, has been rare in art. In modern life, however, smiling faces dominate, especially on social media, where happiness is almost obligatory. Yet, seriousness remains valued as a sign of respect and sovereignty. Society clearly defines when laughter is appropriate, but our bodies don’t always follow these rules.
Together with Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser, writer Arthur Japin, art historians and such as Katja Kleinert (Gemäldegalerie) and Friso Lammertse (Rijksmuseum) and Mariggje Rikken (Frans Hals Museum), the internationally acclaimed artist Glenn Brown and philosopher Philipp Hübl, the film looks at the phenomenon of laughter in the art of Frans Hals – and its function in our lives.