Girl in a Blue Dress

Verspronck was more than twenty years younger than Frans Hals and may have worked in his studio. He was certainly powerfully influenced by Hals’s bold, linear style and his assertive poses. However, Verspronck’s technique is less sketchy, his heads more elaborately worked up: he works in a more refined and detailed manner.

This subtle and charming portrait of a young girl holding an ostrich-feather fan is one of Verspronck’s most outstanding works. The delicately modelled face and the careful detailing of the dress and jewels set it apart from the work of Hals and give it a quite individual and striking effect.