MITRA Forum Question Details

Those of us who are conservators are not to become involved in attribution, dating, or giving conservation treatment suggestions on this forum. Others are welcome to comment if they wish.

I think you will find that it is not a copy after Hals directly, but rather a copy after a copy, by Judith Leyster.​

​Authenticating and dating artwork requires a whole suite of professional skills, starting with the ability to conduct research and possibly read multiple languages. Unless you are able to establish factual information about the chain of ownership for this piece, you will just be guessing, and in my opinion an amateur guess should not be misrepresented as anything else. 

I am a studio artist and not qualified to authenticate or date artwork. I do know, however, that in my studio, the age of stretchers would not be a good indicator of age of completion. I personally have done paintings on antique, salvaged stretchers. At a glance, that fabric looks like typical factory-primed Belgian linen, which is still sold today. (That's why it has that color.) That the tacks are assorted would also make me think that these are reused materials, and I can see at least 1 empty tack hole from repositioning so I wouldn't even trust the assumption that the chassis is original to the work- it may have been executed off the stretchers and mounted later- a common practice in overseas painting "factories". 

Because yours is a copy after a Leyster, I wouldn't waste any more time thinking about the location of the Hals painting on which the original source for the copy was based.  If the dimensions are the same as the Leyster, I would at least strongly suspect that it was not painted at the museum, because that would likely have violated policy on copying and photography. If it's 1:1 it could have been painted from reproduction, at any location where a person could buy or order primed linen.

I would not assume that someone commissioned the copy, although that is certainly possible. Copying paintings in museums was a standard part of an artists training for centuries. This may just have been the version that the painter had access to. On the other hand, once photographic reporductions were available, anything is possible. 

Here is a cool chronology of tacks and nails.

Dating grounds and canvas is far more difficult. This first requires chemical analysis or, at least, cross-sectional analysis. Pigment analysis could help, especially if you find zinc or titanium white. The later, if linen and plain weave, would be difficult to differentiate. Cotton duck does not become common until the 20th century. There are certainly Belgian canvases produced today that are very similar to those they produced over 100 years ago.

nails.docx

All of Judith Leyster's original paintings were, for a long time, misattributed to Frans Hals or her husband, mainly because there was a tendency to assume women were not as capable as men of crafting work of Leyster's quality. ​

You could contact your local library and see if they can obtain through inter-library loan a copy of American Artists' Materials, Vol. II A Guide to Stretchers, Panels, Millboards, and Stencil Marks By Alexander W. Katlan 
This might give you some clues.

Sadly, the misattribution of Judith Leyster's work carried on into the 20th C. until a new generation of scholars brought her work the esteem it deserves