ABSTRACT
Quite a few of the most innovative and best-known paintings by Frans Hals exist in several variants. Attributing some of these versions or imitations is a notoriously difficult challenge. A case in point is the Malle Babbe painting at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which has a rich attribution history: it has been called an original Frans Hals, a work by one of his sons, an early imitation with a forged signature, and even a modern forgery. This case study sheds new light on its attribution by comparing its style, technique and materials in depth to the well-known original by Frans Hals in Berlin and to the Malle Babbe forgery created by Han van Meegeren at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and by relating it to relevant primary sources and seventeenth-century art theory. New technical research was done on all three paintings specifically for this study, including infrared reflectography (IRR), macro X-ray fluorescence scanning (MA-XRF), hyperspectral imaging or reflectance imaging spectroscopy (HI/RIS) and lead isotope analysis. Advanced digital tools were developed to aid the comparison.
