Dirck Hals born at Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, was a Dutch painter of festivals and ballroom scenes. He was influenced by his elder brother Frans Hals

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...

.

Biography

According to Houbraken he was the brother of the painter Frans Hals

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...

 and was specialized in small paintings of "conversation pieces" or "merry companies" (Dutch: Gezelschapjes). The Haarlem writer Samuel Ampzing

Samuel Ampzing

Samuel Ampzing was a Dutch minister, poet and purist.-Biography:Born to the minister Johannes Ampzing in Haarlem, in 1616 Samuel became a minister himself at Rijsoord in Strevelshoek, and in 1619 at the Sint-Bavokerk in Haarlem.-Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland:In 1617, he began...

 mentions both brothers in his Praise of Haarlem with a poem stating that both brothers were exceptional; Frans painting his portraits "awake", and Dirck painting his figures "purely".

According to the RKD he worked in Leiden in 1641 and 1648, and was an influence on the painters Nathaniel Bacon

Nathaniel Bacon

Nathaniel Bacon was a colonist of the Virginia Colony, famous as the instigator of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which collapsed when Bacon himself died from dysentery.-Early life:...

, Johann Hulsman, and Willem Cornelisz Duyster

Willem Cornelisz Duyster

Willem Cornelisz Duyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Amsterdam.-Biography:According to the RKD, his name was taken from his house on the Amsterdam Koningstraat, which was called "De Duystere Werelt", the dim world. He was a pupil of Pieter Codde...

. He was buried in the Waalse Kerk (Haarlem)

Waalse Kerk (Haarlem)

The Waalse kerk is a historical church dating from the 15th century on the Begijnhof in Haarlem, Netherlands.-History:The Waalse kerk is a Walloon church that was built in the middle of the 15th century and has an upper gallery built for the Beguines who lived there on the courtyard that still...

.