1. Frans Hals had painted portraits of girls who could only be described as plain, but something lively and piquant redeemed them.

2. The most useful knowledge we have about the great 17th-century Dutch painter Frans Hals is what we glean from the vibrant, shimmering surfaces of his art.

3. 1995 Michael Kernan, The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals : A couple of his friends had gotten married in huge church ceremonies with morning coats and spats and one even with top hats, and it was all so Actory, he thought