If you want to avoid McQueen mania at the Met, and enjoy a lovely little show blissfully free of crowds, head to the just opened Franz Hals exhibition on the second floor. It demonstrates, once again, why this cultural institution is such a treasure.

Young Man and Woman in an Inn

The show, framed around eleven Hals paintings owned by the Met, was organized by Walter Liedtke, the Met’s curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings, and it is Liedtke’s insights and comments that, for non-academics, really make the show come together. His rich observations are to be found in the Met’s Bulletin publication, Frans Hals: Style and Substance, on the Wall Labels and on the audio guide. I don’t usually like audio guides but in this case Liedtke’s knowledge of the period, especially his interpretation of the symbolism expressed in the paintings, which a non-expert would never figure out, is invaluable.

We discover, for example, courtesy of Liedtke, that in the raffish Merrymakers at Shrovetide (above), the lady in the middle of the painting is probably a man dressed as a woman, and that the other main figures are stock characters from the comic stage, Pickled Herring and John Sausage, whose deflated bagpipe and broken eggs, “may be read as estimates of Pickled Herrings amorous potential.”

Another interesting tidbit that enriches our view of The Smoker (above), is that in Hals’s day, “smoking was compared to drinking and whoring, except that smoking was also considered bad for your health.”

Man with a Ruff

These scenes of public revelry – early Hals – are in sharp contrast to his formal portraits of important citizens of Haarlem. You don’t have to be an expert in 17th Century Dutch portraiture – during which Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer were reigning gods — to admire how totally alive and sympathetic these 17th century men and women are to our 21st century eyes. Also, how exquisitely crafted these portraits are, from the lace on their collars to the penetrating expression in their eyes. As Van Gogh observed in a letter to his brother, “Franz Hals has no less than 27 blacks.”

Petrus Scriverius and Anna van der Aar

This splendid little show offers much more than eleven paintings. It offers us a compressed seminar class in 17th Century European painting, including artists who influenced Hals and who Hals, in turn, later influenced, including 20th century painter Robert Henri’s Dutch Girl in White.

Henri’s Dutch Girl in White

I often think it is these small, unpretentious shows that – like simple, perfect meals — offer us the greatest pleasures. Don’t miss this one.

Top photo by Eleanor Foa Dienstag

For more information, go to the website Metropolitan Museum of Art.