Frans Hals Museum

The Frans Hals Museum is a museum of Frans Hals (1581 / 1585-1666), a Dutch painter of the Baroque period, one of the most outstanding portraitists in the field of European painting. The museum has the world's largest collection of Hals's works. At the permanent exhibition devoted to the phenomenon of the great portraitist, you can see paintings by Hals in a digitized form, gathered in one multimedia room.

In addition to Hals's oeuvre, the museum offers the opportunity to see the works of many other Dutch artists of the 16th and 17th centuries, among which are, among others Jan van Scorel, Marten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen, Hendrik Goltzius, Pieter Saenredam, Judith Leyster, Jan Miense Molenaer and Jacob van Ruisdael.

The Frans Hals Museum was founded in 1862 in the former Dominican church at the back of the town hall (now, since 1913, the headquarters of the facility is located in an abandoned orphanage). The first collection was created from works that were taken from Catholic churches during the Reformation.