The Mystery of the Girl in Blue
Date
12 March 2026 - 11 October 2026
Location
Frans Hals Museum
Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue (1641) by Johannes Verspronck is coming to the Frans Hals Museum! This public favourite from the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam will not be alone: the two portraits of her parents from the Rijksmuseum Twenthe will also be on display. This is the first time since 1979 that the family has been reunited in Haarlem, the city where the three portraits were painted. But who exactly are they? And how do you research the identity of a person portrayed?
Public favourite
The portraits of the young girl in a striking blue dress and her parents remained together for a long time, but eventually ended up in different museums. In the Rijksmuseum, the “girl in blue” became a public favourite. Yet to this day, we still do not know who the girl and her parents are. That is why Professor Frans Grijzenhout, known from the television programme Kunstraadsels, set out to discover the identity of the trio.
Verspronck and Hals
The three portraits were last together in Haarlem at the Frans Hals Museum in 1979, during an exhibition about Johannes Verspronck (1601/03-1662). During your visit to the Frans Hals Museum, you can admire more work by the Haarlem painter. You can also compare his work with that of his fellow Haarlem resident Frans Hals (c. 1583-1666), who was twenty years older and may even have been his teacher.
"Throughout my entire career, I have wondered who this girl was. This presentation shows how such a search works. From family coats of arms and archives to estate inventories: everything can be a clue"
- Professor Frans Grijzenhout, known from the television programme Kunstraadsels