''The Gypsy Girl'' (sometimes erroneously referred to as '' Malle Babbe'') is an oil-on-wood painting by the

Dutch Golden Age painter Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republi ...

Frans Hals, painted in 1628-1630, and now in the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. It is a

tronie A tronie is a type of work common in Dutch Golden Age painting and Flemish Baroque painting that depicts an exaggerated or characteristic facial expression. These works were not intended as portraits but as studies of expression, type, physiognom ...

, a study of facial expression and unusual costume, rather than a commissioned portrait. The display of cleavage was not a common feature of costume seen in public in Hals' time and place.

Painting

This painting was cataloged by Hofstede de Groot in 1910, who wrote "119. THE GYPSY GIRL. B. 41; M. 263 – Half-length; life-size. A laughing gypsy girl, seen almost in full face, looks down towards the right. Her brown hair falls on her shoulders. She wears a red bodice over a white chemise which exposes her breast. Yellow flesh-tones. A superb picture." Hofstede de Groot noticed that the dress of the sitter in this painting is similar to two other paintings by Hals, and he included them on either side of this one (catalog numbers 118 and 120). This painting was first documented in a Paris sale in 1782 and every Frans Hals catalog after that includes her. In the exhibition catalog for the 1962 show, this painting's entry at #23 states that in a raking light one can see that diagonal strokes were once painted on either side of her breasts, indicating that Hals first made her décolleté less daring. Since Hals usually painted his genre works wet-on-wet in one go, such evidence of discovery while working is perhaps evidence of a certain reservation on Hals's part to make a portrait of a wanton woman, though in his time it was a common subject.

Song

''The Gypsy Girl'' has not been in any recent international exhibitions and was last lent out for the 1962 Frans Hals exhibition in the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The museum was established in 1862. In 1950, the museum was split in two locations when the collection of modern art was moved to the '' Museum De Hallen'' (since 2018 called ...

, where she inspired the Haarlem singer-songwriter Lennaert Nijgh to write a song about her which he called ''Malle Babbe'', misleadingly named after ''another'' painting in the same exhibition.Peter Voskuil: ''Testament. Leven en werk van Lennaert Nijgh'', Kats, 2007, The song celebrates the girl's lusty, vibrant sexuality. The raunchy song became a Dutch hit for

Rob de Nijs Rob de Nijs (born 26 December 1942) is a Dutch singer and actor, active since the 1960s. Biography 1962–1968 De Nijs, backed by The Lords, won a talent-contest in 1962 and released his first single in 1962, " Ritme van de Regen". In 1965 D ...

in 1975 and is still immensely popular in versions by different artists. Today the painting is also sometimes referred to as ''Malle Babbe'' for this reason. No name has been discovered in the archives, but various art historians have assumed she was a prostitute. There is no real reason to assume the model was a

gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

. Girls painted by Hals who are wearing similar chemises: File: Hals, Frans - Singing Girl - 1626-30.jpg, HdG cat. nr. 118: ''

Singing Girl by Hals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

'', with a buttoned-up chemise under a green tunic File: After Frans Hals - portrait of a girl facing right - KdK 80.jpg, HdG cat. nr. 120:''

Portrait of a girl facing right A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

'', with a delicate transparent chemise worn over a darker under garment.

References

External links

Information
in the

Web Gallery of Art The Web Gallery of Art (WGA) is a virtual art gallery website. It displays historic European visual art, mainly from the Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance periods, available for educational and personal use. Overview The website contains reprodu ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gypsy Girl, The 1630 paintings Paintings by Frans Hals Paintings in the Louvre by Dutch, Flemish and German artists Portraits of women