Anna Hals, daughter of Dirk Hals, was born ca 1635 in Holland. She married Jacob Tyssen (Mathys) Van der Heyden on the 25th of July 1655 in Amsterdam, Holland. Jacob had returned to Holland from New Amsterdam after purchasing land for his bride to be. Together, Jacob and Anna would have eight children together, one of which would become owner of the Bank of Albany and build a castle in Albany suing imported supplies from Holland.

Dirk Hals, the son of Franchoys Hals and Adriana Van Gerrtenryck, was born ca 1591 in Antwerp, Belgium. He died in 1656 in Haarlem, Netherlands. His brother, Frans Hals, is a major Dutch artist, considered second only to Rembrandt in artistic ability.

Dutch art fluorished in the 17th century, considered the great age of Dutch painting marked by such great artists as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Adriaen van Ostade, William van de Velde, and Jan Steen.

Musicians
(Web Gallery of Art)

While Frans was considered the more talented of the two brothers, Dirk's work hangs in some of the major galleries of art today.

The Hals family were refugees from Antwerp, considered the greatest city in continental Europe. In August 1585, Antwerp finally succumbed to the Spanish, who had been besieging the city and thousands fled. The Hals family arrived in Haarlem in the Netherlands by 1591, where three of their sons sought their future in the art world. While we do not know the training Dirk received, we do know that Hans was apprenticed to the Haarlem master painter, Karel van Mander and in 1610 was admitted to the Guild of St.Luke, a guild for painters of talent. It is possible that Frans taught his brother, Dirk the art of painting. Of the Hals children, only Frans and Dirk received any notoriety.

Dirk was noted for his small interior scenes, social pictures of people gathered for dinners, dancing, talking or listening to music. He enjoyed painting people while they were enjoying themselves and shunned more serious studies. His focus is upon the mood, the conversation, the flirting. His expertise is shown in the fashionable dress and color of the social occasions with emphasis on people's spirits and facial expression. Dirk was influenced by the work of Esaias van de Velde and William Buytewech.

Banquet Scene
(Web Gallery of Art)

Dirk's greatest success is the "Merry Company", which represented self-indulgence in a colorful palette employing use of naturalistic details. Throughout Dirk's work, one notes a sense of warning, a subtle sense of awaiting divine retribution for those whose merry making becomes excessive.

Merry Making
(Web Gallery of Art)