In the subjective world of art, you can never tell what a meaning is in any painting especially a portrait. This work by Frans Hals has garnered a lot of meaning throughout the ages, and attempts to try and interpret the meaning, more or less looking at the artists destitute life as a signpost (Berger, 1972). According to Berger, Hals in 1664 was an old man and received his material through public charity. Berger claims there is no “spirit of bitterness” (p. 13) from Hals in this work which I will discuss in my analysis. What seems to prevail with this work is the concept of mystification, which is commonly described in Marxist circles as hindering critical consciousness. I have decided to challenge myself and overcome the obscure nature of this portrait and develop a sense of understanding and meaning in a grounded sense.
I. The Regents
My first question when observing this painting was “who are the regents?” In the Dutch tradition, regents are governors of state appointed by royalty. With reference to Britain, I would compare regents to be located somewhere in-between gentry and baron, but not quite aristocracy, as title could not be passed through hereditary. Therefore, the regents inside the Almshouse were men of stature and influence during seventeenth century Netherlands.
II. The Old Men’s Almshouse
I did some research on the etymology of an almshouse, and the first description from Bremner (1956) as a poorhouse or a hospital, a charitable place targeted toward the poor and destitute. This had me confused as regents being such high members of society, how could they have found themselves in the presence of a seventeenth century poorhouse. It had me thinking that the Almshouse takes on many different interpretations ones being that it was for former employees who could not afford their homes, and since a regent is not a title passed on through lineage, the almshouse acts as a sort of retirement home for the old men to live out their final days, once the work of an upperclassman is done. With this understanding, the painting becomes more clearer.
III. Interpretation of the Artist
As stated previous, Berger sees no signs of bitterness from Hals with this painting, however, I challenge to see it differently. As within the Marxist interpretation of mystification, one would only look at bitterness through the lens of class structure, however, I see Hals bitterness in his mortality. He himself was old when this painting was created, and bitterness comes in the form of getting old, reaching the end of an existence you have been used to for so long.
Hals sees the regents, once these individuals of high stature, brought down to the almshouse awaiting their final breaths amongst the poor and destitute of society. One interpretation is that the servant of the five regents (the only man without a hat, holding the paper) is a self-portrait of Hals himself. A Marxist interpretation may be that Hals is near the end of his life and in the almshouse with the regents but is still a servant, and is another victim of the class struggle. However, with a different perspective, say a younger outsider, would not see the class system inside the walls of the almshouse, the outsider would see all members equally awaiting their mortal conclusion.
IV. Reflective Conclusion
Hierarchies form and dismantle and continue to form over time. This is my main criticism with what I believe to be the overall thesis of Marx and Engels (1848) in the Communist Manifesto, with the proletariat dismantling the bourgeois. When the proletariat dismantles the bourgeois, then the proletariat becomes the “lead-proletariat” and the hierarchy structure starts over again. Or you have been fighting the bourgeois too long, you end up old, sick, and dying in the same home as the bourgeois you have been fighting against this whole time.
Ultimately, I could believe that Hals (who passed away 2 years later in 1666) could have showed bitterness in the forms of class or age, but then, had an epiphany that it ultimately doesn’t matter as all iterations of species in of itself are all heading to one place. Perhaps Hals placed himself as the servant, and says although I am old and never reached a certain status, I am in this photo immortalized forever, and the self-actualization that the end is near, but it does not matter, as we are all specs of paint dust in the cosmos of the universe.
This painting connected me to a poem that I thoroughly enjoy from W.B. Yeats (1928) titled Sailing to Byzantium. I found listening to the poem while looking at the painting to be quite an experience (link for poem, reading starts at 1:12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=345ttNxIvog), as if the regents of the painting are talking to us, telling us their true feelings about that moment near the end. Mortality, Byzantium…it is calling.
References
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. Penguin Books.
Bremner, R. H. (1956). The discovery of poverty in the United States. Transaction Publishers.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1848). Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei.
Yeats, W. B. (1928). Sailing to Byzatium. In The Tower, Macmillan Publishing
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