Paulus van Beresteyn (1588-1636), Man of the Law in Haarlem

This work was painted in around 1619/20, and not in 1629, a date added to the painting later on, probably at the time of Beresteyn's third marriage. Beresteyn was a Catholic patrician in Haarlem, the town where Frans Hals spent most of his life. The painting is in the artist's brilliant Flemish Baroque style, evident in the portrait of Beresteyn's wife, also in the Louvre (circle of Frans Hals, R.F. 425). (http://cartelen.louvre.fr)