Frans Hals was one of the first to make profit from the Italian painter Caravaggios style when it became popular in northern Europe. He was born 1580 in Antwerp, Belgium, but his family moved to Haarlem in 1591. He was twice married, had at least ten children, and was constantly in financial trouble. Five of his sons were painters as well as two brothers, but only one (Dirck Hals) was regarded as good. No works painted before Frans Hals was thirty are known.
Almost all his works are portraits and he was regarded the great portrait painter of Haarlem. Some of his work is concidered the most moving portraits ever painted. He belonged to the Utrecht school and in his early work he was very inspired by Rubens. Hals developed a style that combined the robustness and breadth of Ruben’s paintings with dramatic movement from the Utrecht school and Caravaggio. The paintings radiated spontaneity and showed dashing brush strokes, but he spend hours on each painting and planned everything very exact. No drawings by him are known so it is presumed that he worked straight on to the canvas. He evolved a technique that was close to impressionism. The painers Édouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh were influenced by him.

The period between the 1630’s to 1650’s was his most productive and he was very popular in the middle class of Haarlem. The portraits of Hals's last 16 years are seen as his masterpieces. He died in Haarlem on the 1st of September 1666 in what is now the Frans Hals Museum. In total he made about 300 paintings.
Well-known paintings are The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company (1616), The Laughing Cavalier (1624), Gypsy Girl (1630) and Regentesses of the Old Men's Alms House (1664).