A bare-shouldered young woman tilts her head with a sly, knowing half-smile, her hair loose and tousled, her eyes glancing off to the side as if at someone just out of frame. Frans Hals dashes her off in quick, visible strokes that seem to catch a laugh in mid-breath. This is not a commissioned likeness but a 'tronie,' a lively character study of a stock type, made to show off the painter's bravura. Now in the Louvre, the so-called Gypsy Girl radiates an unbuttoned vitality rare in an age of stiff, decorous portraiture.
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