Permanent Collection
Internationally famous as a museum of the Dutch Golden Age, the Frans Hals Museum is situated in a picturesque 17th-century building, where hundreds of paintings and craft objects are on alternating display. You can still feel the atmosphere of all those years ago. The 16th-century collection features works by Hendrick Goltzius, Cornelis van Haarlem and Maerten van Heemskerck. Among the many masters representing the Golden Age are Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Adriaan van Ostade, Pieter Claesz, Jan Steen, Johannes Verspronck and Pieter Saenredam. Five large civic guard paintings, three regent group portraits and various individual portraits by Frans Hals are on view.  The museum also houses a large collection of period furniture, Haarlem silver and ceramics.

In the early 1960s the museum gained the Vleeshal (old meat hall) in Haarlem's main marketplace, the Grote Markt, as an annexe. In 1995 the Verweyhal was opened, which is adjacent to the Vleeshal. Together they form De Hallen, which house the museum's large collection of modern art and provide space for exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, the graphic arts, objects and ceramics. It features work by the Dutch Impressionists and Expressionists, the Cobra group, contemporary art and work by artists from the Haarlem area. Artists such as Isaac Israëls, Herman Kruyder, Jan Sluyters, Corneille, Constant, Karel Appel, Reinier Lucassen, Armando, Mari Boeyen and Ger Dekkers alternate in the display.