2-974-377 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of a Couple, Probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen, c.1622. Other Title(s): Portrait of a Couple in a Landscape, probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa (1586-1643) and Beatrix van der Laen (1592-1639)Marriage Portrait of Isaac Abrahamsz Massa (1586-1643) and Beatrix van der Laen (1592-1639), married in Haarlem on 25 April 1622. The fabulously wealthy Haarlem merchant and his wife commissioned their friend Frans Hals to paint their portrait in an unusual way. Seventeenth-century couples rarely appear together in a single painting, especially in such a nonchalant pose. Hals included all kinds of symbols of love in the scene, such as the thistle on the left. A Dutch name for the plant was 'husband's fidelity'.