It's the hard knock life for Hals. 

Frans was one of the preeminent portrait painters in the Netherlands during the 17th century. Sometimes, though, being one of the OGs just isn't enough. The Hals household had money problems from day one until Frans' death. He lived through a double whammy of having too many kids and working at a time when the market was swole with talent. Artisans, nobility, merchants would pay for him to craft their likenesses on canvas. It's just too many other people could do it, too, for Frans to hustle. 

Half of his dozen child brood became professional painters. The good stuff either skipped a generation or hopped out of the gene pool altogether, as his talent never surfaced in the work of his progeny. Marital relationships were a little rocky, as well. The first Mrs. Hals died along with two of his kids. The second Mrs. Hals popped out their first kid right after the wedding. No time for a honeymoon, even. Frans and Mrs. Hals the Sequel had some kind of spark, though, considering they had ten kids total. His second wife was quite the firecracker, getting arrested multiple times for publicly beating the crap out of others.

Incidents like that and Hals' penchant for painting the dregs of society led a prominent biographer to label the artist a degenerate alcoholic. There's zero proof, and the theory is widely debunked today. Still, it persists. The reason this water cooler gossip seemed so possible was because of Hals' money problems. He was sued by his butcher, baker, and shoemaker once for unpaid debts. A couple years before he went up to the great studio in the sky, he was all but homeless. Some buddies in the Haarlem city government threw a small stipend his way to keep a roof overhead and bread on the table.

Born 1580 - Died August 26, 1666

Started out as an art restorer.

Had the bad timing of arriving on the scene right around the time his home town decided to detox from Catholicism. First the town confiscated all religious art. Then all artworks deemed "too Catholic" were sold to a local dealer on the condition that he remove them from the town. Of course this killed the demand for awesome biblical scenes, which Hals would have undoubtedly been very good at. The net result is that he ended up becoming one of the greatest portrait painters of all time.

One of his many odd jobs was to appraise art for the local tax collector.

Art historians have falsely accused him of beating his first wife. Turns out there was another Frans Hals who was a real monster.

First wife died early after producing two children. The nanny became wife number two and bore him another six kids. She was 8 moths pregnant when they married.

He died poor and his second wife even poorer.