As a portrait painter, Hals had scarcely the psychological insight of a Rembrandt or Velázquez, though in a few works, like the "Admiral de Ruyter", the "Jacob Olycan", and the "Albert van der Meer" paintings, he reveals a searching analysis of character which has little in common with the instantaneous expression of his so-called character portraits. In these, he generally sets upon the canvas the fleeting aspect of the various stages of merriment, from the subtle, half ironic smile that quivers round the lips of the curiously misnamed "Laughing Cavalier" to the imbecile grin of the "Malle Babbe". To this group of pictures belong "Baron Gustav Rothschilds Jester", the "Bohemienne" and the "Laughing Fisherboy", whilst the "Portrait of the Artist with his Second Wife", and the somewhat confused group of the "Beresteyn Family" at the Louvre show a similar tendency. Far less scattered in arrangement than this Beresteyn group, and in every respect one of the most masterly of Hals' achievements is the group called "The Painter and his Family", which was almost unknown until it appeared at the winter exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1906.