In 1639, the leaders of St George’s civic guard commissioned Frans Hals to paint a group portrait. It was his sixth and last civic guard painting. The guards are assembled in two rows – unlike Hals’s other group portraits. The sense of movement is created by the weapons and banners.

The second man from the right is Dirck Dicx, who left the Netherlands to set up a brewery in the Dutch colony in Brazil in 1640. It seems this venture did not go well, as he had left Brazil by 1643, and the company had been dissolved.
One of the men is Frans Hals himself. Although not a member of the guards at the time, he added himself to this group portrait - he looks on from the top left corner. This is the only known self-portrait of the artist.