Frans Hals
Dorothea Berck, Wife of Joseph Coymans
1643
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, 33 x 27 1/2 in. (83.8 x 69.9 cm.)
Credit Line
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection
Object Number
1938.231
Frans Hals recorded his sitters with vivid realism and bold brushstrokes, conveying both their physical attributes and their personal character. Here, he captured Dorothea
Berck’s (1593–1684) heavy eyelids and soft skin, indicators of her middle age. Hands clasped firmly in front of her—one gloved in a soft, ivory fabric—she looks out directly
to the viewer. A cinquefoil, or circle of five birch leaves, in the background refers to a variation of her name. Berk translates to “birch” in Dutch.
Berck was married to Joseph Coymans (1591–1677), a banker, spice trader, and member of one of the wealthiest merchant families in Amsterdam. The family’s extensive
trading empire stretched across the globe.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1938; Mary Frick Jacobs, Baltimore, MD; Henry Barton Jacobs, Baltimore, MD by purchase, 1929; Duveen Brothers, Inc., New York, NY by purchase, 1928; Archer M. Huntington (1870–1955), New York, NY by descent; Arabella D. (Mrs. Collis P.) Huntington (1850–1924), New York, NY by purchase; Duveen Brothers, Inc., London by purchase, August 1907; Rodolphe Kann (d. 1905) Collection, Paris; Mrs. Frederick Wollaston, London; Coymans Family, Haarlem.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Hudson–Fulton Celebration,” 1909, cat. 36.
The Worcester Art Museum, “Art Through Fifty Centuries: From the Collections of The Worcester Art Museum,” March 1948.
The Art Gallery of Toronto, “Fifty Paintings by Old Masters.” April 21 to May 21 1950, cat. 18
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting," November 4, 1950 to February 11, 1951, cat. 36.
The Walters Art Gallery, “Dutch 17th c. Painting”, November 10 to December 30, 1951.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, "Great Portraits by Famous Painters," November 13 to December 21, 1952.
The Municipal Museum at Haarlem, “Frans Hals, exhibition on the occasion of the centenary of the municipal museum at Haarlem, 1862-1962,” June 15 to September 30, 1962, pp. 63–64, cat. 53.
The Newark Museum of Art, “Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt,” September 26, 2001–January 20, 2002, Circulated to, Denver Art Museum, March 2, 2002–May 26, 2002. (First announced as: Dutch Intimacy and Opulence: The Art of Home and Private Life, 1640–1700).
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Reunited Masterpieces: From Adam and Eve to George and Martha," February 14–May 30, 2010, pp. 31–33.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art," February 9–July 27, 2025.
The Worcester Art Museum, “Art Through Fifty Centuries: From the Collections of The Worcester Art Museum,” March 1948.
The Art Gallery of Toronto, “Fifty Paintings by Old Masters.” April 21 to May 21 1950, cat. 18
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting," November 4, 1950 to February 11, 1951, cat. 36.
The Walters Art Gallery, “Dutch 17th c. Painting”, November 10 to December 30, 1951.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, "Great Portraits by Famous Painters," November 13 to December 21, 1952.
The Municipal Museum at Haarlem, “Frans Hals, exhibition on the occasion of the centenary of the municipal museum at Haarlem, 1862-1962,” June 15 to September 30, 1962, pp. 63–64, cat. 53.
The Newark Museum of Art, “Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt,” September 26, 2001–January 20, 2002, Circulated to, Denver Art Museum, March 2, 2002–May 26, 2002. (First announced as: Dutch Intimacy and Opulence: The Art of Home and Private Life, 1640–1700).
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, "Reunited Masterpieces: From Adam and Eve to George and Martha," February 14–May 30, 2010, pp. 31–33.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Watershed: Transforming the Landscape in Early Modern Dutch Art," February 9–July 27, 2025.
Hofstede de Groot, "A Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the 17th Century" London: MacMillan, 1907, Vol. 3, p. 54, Entry no. 170 (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1976).
John C. van Lennep, Portraits in the Kann Collection, "The Burlington Magazine, XIII," 1908, pp. 293-294.
Bode-Binder, "Frans Hals, Sein Leben und Seine Werke," Berlin: 1914, 2 Vols., p. 246.
Klassiker der Kunst (Valentiner), "Frans Hals, des Meisters Gemalde," 1923, p. 211.
Wilhem R. Valentiner, "Frans Hals in Amerika," Westport, Connecticut: 1936, Cat. no. 76.
Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the 17th Century, vol. 3 (London: MacMillan, 1907), p. 54, no. 170.
John C. van Lennep, “Portraits in the Kann Collection,” The Burlington Magazine 13, no. 65 (August 1908): pp. 293–294.
Wilhelm von Bode and M.J. Binder, Frans Hals, sein Leben und seine Werke, vol. 2 (Berlin Photograph Gesellschaft, 1914), p. 246, pl. 155b.
W.R. Valentiner, Frans Hals des Meisters Gemälde in 322 Abbildungen (Stuttgart und Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1923), pp. 211, 319.
W.R. Valentiner, Frans Hals Paintings in America (Westport, CT: Sherman, 1936), cat. no. 76.
Henry Barton Jacobs, The Collection of Mary Frick Jacobs (Baltimore: Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs, 1938), pl. 58.
Duveen Brothers, Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America: A Catalogue Raisonné with Three Hundred Illustrations of Paintings by the Great Masters, which have passed through the House of Duveen (New York: William Bradford Press, 1941), no. 193.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, 200 Objects in The Baltimore Museum of Art: A Picture Book (Baltimore Museum of Art, 1955), p. 26.
BMA News (October 1958), p. 13.
Seymour Slive, “Frans Hals Portrait of Joseph Coymans,” Wadsworth Atheneum Bulletin (Winter 1958): p. 16, no. 5.
“Frans Hals and the Coymans Family,” BMA News (February 1959), pp. 14-15.
Eloise Spaeth, American Art Museums & Galleries, An Introduction to Looking (Harper & Bros: New York, 1960), p. 51.
Emily Genauer, “What Makes a Masterpiece?” Baltimore News American. Sunday, May 28, 1961, ill. pictorial Review section.
Georg Poensgen, "Rückblick auf die Frans Hals Ausstellung in Haarlem,” Pantheon 20 (1962), p. 383.
Herbert and Marjorie Katz, Museums, USA: A History and Guide (New York: Doubleday & Company Inc., 1965), p. 30.
K. R. Greenfield, The Museum: It’s First Half Century (Baltimore Museum of Art, 1966), p. 69.
Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (New York: Phaidon, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 159-160, 185, vol. 2, pl. 244, pl. 246.
Seymour Slive, Frans Hals, vol. 3 (New York: Phaidon Publishers Inc., 1974), p. 82, no. 161.
H. P. Baard, Frans Hals (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1981), p. 61, cat. 65.
Peter Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Washington D.C.: Netherlands-American Amity Trust, 1986), pp. 4, 108.
Harry Berger, Manhood, Marriage, and Mischief: Rembrandt's Night Watch and Other Dutch Group Portraits (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007), pp. 154–162, fig. 28.
Caitlin Kelly, "Long-Separated Portraits, on a Wall Together at Last," New York Times, March 13, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/arts/artsspecial/18COUPLES.html.
Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2014), pp. 254–255, 305, pl.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating a Museum (The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014), p. 41.
Claus Grimm, Frans Hals and His Workshop: RKD Studies, ed. Ellis Dullaart (The Hague: RKD, 2024), no. A1.112, https://frans-hals-and-his-workshop.rkdstudies.nl/a1-paintings-frans-hals/a1111-a1121/.
Pieter Biesboer, "Willem or Balthasar? The Portrait of a Member of the Coymans Family by Frans Hals Reconsidered," in Frans Hals: Iconography-Technique-Reputation, ed. Norbert E. Middelkoop and Rudi E.O. Ekkart (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2024), p. 87, 88, fig. 6, 89, 91.
On View at the BMA
Explore the Collection Further
![[UNIDENTIFIED SCENE]](https://www.artbma.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/103350_35210609.jpg)
