Judith Leyster - Leyster and Frans Hals

Leyster and Frans Hals

Apart from the lawsuit mentioned above, the nature of Leyster's professional relationship with Hals is unclear; she may have been his student or else a friendly colleague. She may have been a witness at the baptism of Hals' daughter Maria in the early 1630s, since a Judith Jans was recorded as such, but there were other Judith Janses in Haarlem. There is no documented evidence of Judith Leyster's apprenticeship under Frans Hals, even though much of Leyster's work, such as the Merry Drinker from 1629 (now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam), has a very strong resemblance to The Jolly Drinker of 1627-28 by Hals (also in the Rijksmuseum). Some historians have asserted that Hals must have been Leyster's teacher due to the close similarity between their work.