Gary LeBel
Scales
On Frans Hals’ Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart
"The true artist, although life life may consist mostly of struggles,
has no enemy."
Albert Camus, Roger Martin du Gard
We’ve all met them, at times with a tinge of jealousy or, inversely, with a certain admiration whose currency is joy. They are the friend we wish we’d had or the one whose memory forever draws an inward smile. And if you’re lucky enough, they’re the friend who never belittles or betrays you, who’d rather die than compromise your friendship. They wear their life’s philosophy on their sleeve right next to their heart: live, live, live and let love! is what they’ve gleaned of Plato, Epictetus and the rest.
And like an old-fashioned steamer trunk, they’ll carry their youth into middle age and beyond with a viewpoint on most anything that’s as fresh and clear as a mountain brook, or they’ll freely admit with a laugh that they ‘just don’t know’ or ‘have an opinion yet’ without any loss of face.
And they may be married folk of the kind who’ll stay together no matter what the circumstance or trouble, always the best of friends first, confident that the love and respect they have for one another is ever sheltered in the promises they’ll keep, like the bells that ring in each new year.
If you happen to love dogs, you’ll soon notice the tenderness with which Yonker cups the dog’s muzzle in his left hand, and the mirroring gentleness with which his sweetheart lays hers so lightly upon his heart and shoulder: really, it’s a portrait of three. Real affection means that you don’t care if you crush your lace or ruffles.
Seen up close, the master’s brushstrokes are broad and bold, deceptively slap-dash, but ah! so precisely controlled! The joie de vivre that shouts from this canvas cares nothing for the centuries that try their best to wear it thin, and only undermines those silent couples in restaurants who look everywhere but at each other because they let time sand away all the original daring, affection and roughness from their wood: simplicity is what ensures our joy in things, that and artists with an open heart, be they painters, poets or talespinners. And when the Sweetheart gazes at Hals working so exuberantly at his easel, grinning as he loads his brush with scarlet to catch those flaming cheeks, her smile-pinched twinkling eyes see in him what he sees in them, and thus the scales of human insight are perfectly balanced: really, it’s a portrait of four.
Sometimes in a mirror
or through a window
or a door swung suddenly open,
how fleet the dream of life
that's passing
Note: Camus quote translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy from Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays.
About the Author
Gary LeBel is an artist-poet living in the greater Atlanta area whose poems have appeared in journals throughout the USA, the UK, Japan, and India. He believes that art, or anything else worth doing, is a life-long pilgrimage.