This picture is one of five known versions that are similar in size. In all of them, the young man is holding a flower, though this is the only example where he holds a carnation instead of a lily. The prime version is considered to be that in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (Fig. 1) and includes a partly executed painting on an easel to the right of the figure.
The model for these paintings appears to be the same as that used in Frans Hals' Merry Lute Player and Young Man with a Skull, both dated circa 1626 (Figs 2 and 3).
Right: Fig. 3: Frans Hals, Young man holding a skull (Vanitas), c.1626, oil on canvas, 92 x 81 cm. National Gallery, London © Wikimedia
We are grateful to Martin Bijl and Pieter Biesboer for proposing that this painting is the product of a collaboration between Frans Hals and his sons. They suggest that in circa 1640 Frans Hals, who was almost 60 years old, was teaching his sons Frans the Younger (1618–1669) and Jan (1620–1654) to paint in his style by executing works in collaboration with them. In the present work, Bijl and Biesboer propose that Hals painted the left hand of the figure (left unfinished), parts of his clothing, and the proper right side of his face, while the rest was executed by his sons.
We are also grateful to Claus Grimm, who will include the present painting in his forthcoming revised and expanded catalogue raisonné of Frans Hals' œuvre, as a workshop painting (Frans Hals the Younger?), provisionally no. A4.2-47d. He assigns all five versions to Hals' workshop and dates them to circa 1640, suggesting they were based on a preparatory study or a copy of the Merry Lute Player preserved in Hals' workshop.