Eight rooms filled with sumptuous embroidery and fine-spun lace worn by sitters with laughing, gurning and awed faces: The Laughing Cavalier is but one of a cast of many
“Frans Hals is a colourist among colourists,” enthused van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo in 1885, “a colourist like Veronese, like Rubens, like Delacroix, like Velázquez.” With testimonials like this, it’s no wonder anticipation for the National Gallery’s recently opened Frans Hals survey was high.
Comprehensive collection of the 17th-century painter’s work aims to place him alongside Rembrandt and Vermeer, but his technically brilliant paintings are weirdly soulless