He who laughs last
THE ability of Frans Hals to paint portraits that can ‘live and breathe’ is much praised, and the subject of one particular painting seems to know something is the work that secured the Dutch Master’s fame—not when it was painted in 1624, but in 1865, when the 4th Marquess of Hertford (founder of the Wallace Collection) and Baron James de Rothschild engaged in a sensational bidding duel at a sale in Paris. The Marquess won, paying 51,000 francs (more than six times the estimate) and the publicity that ensued dragged Hals from obscurity; his prices soared thereafter.
