Toledo Museum of Art acquires mega Hals
October 5 2011
The Toledo Museum of Art has acquired a large group portrait by Frans Hals. Painted in the early 1620s, Family Portrait in a Landscape is the earliest of only four known family portraits by Hals to have survived, and until now was the only example to have remained in private hands. The youngest child (botton left) was painted later by Saloman de Bray in 1628 (he signed it in the left shoe). The picture was once larger, but was at some point cut down. The smaller portion, now called Three Children and a Goat Cart, is in the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Brussels. Toledo hope to re-unite the two pictures at some point.
Toledo's gain is the UK's loss. The picture was bought from a private collection here, via a London dealer. An export licence was granted in July this year at a price of £7.75m. It had previously been on loan to the National Museum in Cardiff, but they did not try and raise a matching offer.
It's worth a look at Toledo's website to see how museums should advertise their acquisitions. The Hals is on the front page, under the heading 'Good News!', and there's a video, and further comprehensive notes. By way of a contrast, there is still nothing on the Fitzwilliam's website about their latest acqusition...
