The Meagre Company

This enormous militia group portrait of the Amsterdam district XI company was left unfinished when Frans Hals and his sitters quarreled over payment, and it was completed by Pieter Codde — the join is still visible in the handling of the figures on the right. The nickname “The Meagre Company” is said to refer to the thinness of the company’s purse rather than its members. It is the only Amsterdam civic-guard portrait by Hals, whose swift, loose brushwork makes the finished portion among the most vital of all Dutch group portraits.