A quick sketch in charcoal of Pieter van den Broecke c 1633 by Frans Hals.

Van de Broecke was a colonial trader from Haarlem who worked for the Dutch East India company. He was a merchant in West Africa and served in Java, Arabia, Persia and India. He was born in Antwerp ( now Belgium) but at the time the southern part of the Netherlands fell under Spanish rule ( Catholic). His family being protestant Calvinist therefore departed to the northern Dutch Republic.

Frans Hals, also born in Antwerp, moved to Haarlem and painted this portrait when van den Broecke retired from the East India company and was rewarded a gold chain.

I like Hals’s bold, direct manner of painting and his loose painterly brushwork.

I worked quite quickly using expressive charcoal marks to try to capture the essence of this portrait.