Frans Hals is hailed as one of the three greatest painters of the Dutch seventeenth century along with Rembrandt and Vermeer. Of all seventeenth-century Dutch painters, Frans Hals is also the most controversial in as far as the exact scope of his oeuvre is concerned. Hals's popularity, the lack of technical reference material as well as the differing views among experts as to the exact scope of his oeuvre make works in his style prone to doubts...