Clown with Lute

A grinning entertainer leans forward mid-strum, lute in hand, mouth open as if breaking into song, his plumed cap askew and his eyes bright with mischief. Frans Hals catches the buffoon in a single fleeting instant of performance, the brush flying in rapid, visible strokes that seem to vibrate with the music. Now in the Louvre, the picture shows Hals's unmatched gift for the live, unposed moment - not a dignified sitter but a flash of laughter and movement, a whole personality seized on the wing and fixed before it can fade.