View source for Laughing Cavalier

{{Short description|Painting by Frans Hals}}
{{about|the painting|other uses|The Laughing Cavalier (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title         = Laughing Cavalier
| image_file    = Cavalier soldier Hals-1624x.jpg
| alt           = 
| medium        = [[Oil on canvas]]
| artist        = [[Frans Hals]]
| year          = {{start date|1624}}
| height_metric = 83
| width_metric  = 67.3
| metric_unit   = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| city          = [[London]]
| museum        = [[Wallace Collection]]
}}

The '''''Laughing Cavalier''''' (1624) is a portrait by the [[Dutch Golden Age painter]] [[Frans Hals]] in the [[Wallace Collection]] in London.<ref>[[:nl:Rudi Ekkart|Rudi Ekkart]] and Quentin Buvelot (eds), ''Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals'', 2007, Mauritshuis/National Gallery/Waanders Publishers, [[Zwolle]], {{ISBN|978-1-85709-362-9}}</ref> It was described by art historian [[Seymour Slive]] as "one of the most brilliant of all Baroque portraits".<ref>Slive, p.38</ref> The title is an invention of the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] public and press, dating from its exhibition in the opening display at the [[Bethnal Green Museum]] in 1872–1875, just after its arrival in England, after which it was regularly reproduced as a print, and became one of the best known [[old master painting]]s in Britain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Drunkard or genius? London's National Gallery gets up close and personal with Frans Hals |last=Da Silva |first=José |work=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events |date=31 August 2023 |access-date=16 December 2023 |url= https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/08/31/drunkard-or-genius-up-close-and-personal-with-frans-hals}}</ref> The unknown subject is in fact not laughing, but can be said to have an enigmatic smile, much amplified by his upturned moustache.<ref>Ingamells, 136, and note 1</ref>

==Description==
The portrait measures {{convert|83|×|67.3|cm|in|abbr=on}} and is inscribed at top right {{lang|la|Æ'TA SVÆ 26/Aº1624}}, which expands to {{lang|la|aetatis suae 26, anno 1624}} in Latin and means that the portrait was painted when the sitter was 26 and in the year 1624, and was therefore born in 1597 or 1598.<ref>Ingamells, 135</ref> The identity of the man is unknown, and though the recorded 19th-century titles in Dutch, English and French mostly suggest a military man, or at least an officer in one of the part-time [[militia]] companies that were often the subjects of group portraits, including some by Hals and later [[Rembrandt]]'s ''[[The Night Watch]]'' (1642), in fact he was as likely to be a wealthy civilian. Art historian [[Pieter Biesboer]] suggests the painting may depict Dutch cloth merchant [[Tieleman Roosterman]] (1598–1673), who is also the subject of another Hals portrait.<ref>Pieter Biesboer, “De Laughing Cavalier van Frans Hals: een mogelijke identificatie [as Tieleman Roosterman (1597–1672), Londen: Wallace Collection]”, in ''Face Book: studies on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th-18th Centuries, an impressive volume of 63 essays on portraiture'', 2012</ref>

The composition is lively and spontaneous, and despite the apparent labour involved in the gorgeous, and very expensive, silk costume, close inspection reveals long, quick brush strokes. The turning pose and low viewpoint are found in other portraits by Hals and here allow emphasis on the embroidered sleeve and lace cuff. There are many [[emblem]]s in the embroidery: signifying "the pleasures and pains of love" are "bees, arrows, flaming [[cornucopia]]e, [[lovers' knots]] and tongues of fire", while an [[obelisk]] or [[pyramid]] signifies strength and [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]]'s cap and [[caduceus]] fortune.<ref>Ingamells, p.135–136; Slive p.38</ref>

In general, commissioned portraits such as this rarely showed adults smiling until the late 18th century, though smiling is often seen in [[tronie]]s and figures in [[genre painting]]. But Hals is an exception to the general rule and often showed sitters with broader smiles than here, and in informal poses that bring an impression of movement and spontaneity to his work.<ref>Middelkoop and Van Grevenstein-Kruse, 76; Ekkart and Buvelot, 106; Slive, 38</ref>

The effect of the eyes appearing to follow the viewer from every angle is a result of the subject being depicted as looking directly forward, toward the artist's point of view, combined with being a static two dimensional representation of this from whichever angle the painting itself is viewed.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/sep/22/arts.science "How the Laughing Cavalier keeps an eye on everybody"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', by Ian Sample, 22 September 2004</ref>

==History==
The painting's [[provenance]] only goes back to a sale in [[The Hague]] in 1770; after further Dutch sales it was bought by the [[Swiss people#Ethno-linguistic composition|Franco-Swiss]] banker and collector the Comte de [[James-Alexandre de Pourtalès|Pourtalès]]-Gorgier in 1822. After his death the painting was acquired at the auction of his [[Comte de Pourtalès Collection|collection]] in Paris in 1865 by [[Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford]], who outbid [[James Mayer de Rothschild|Baron James de Rothschild]] at more than six times the sales estimate. It was in Hertford's Paris home in 1871, listed as ''portrait d'un homme'' ("portrait of a man"), and then brought to London, probably for the purpose of exhibiting it in a large and long loan exhibition of [[old master painting]]s at [[Bethnal Green]], which was deliberately sited away from the [[West End of London]] to attract the working classes. The exhibition was a huge success and ''A Cavalier'' (the catalogue title) a particular hit with both public and the critics; it played a considerable part in raising the critical estimation of Hals in England.

By 1888, when it was again exhibited at the [[Royal Academy]], it had become ''Laughing Cavalier'', though a cleaning in the intervening period (in 1884) may have changed the effect.<ref>Ingamells, 136</ref>  The critic in the [[Athenaeum (British magazine)|Athenaeum]] noted a brighter appearance, but also that "The man smiles rather than laughs".<ref>Ingamells, note 1</ref> Hertford's collection was bequeathed to his natural son [[Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet|Sir Richard Wallace Bt.]], whose widow donated it and his London house to the nation as the Wallace Collection. It was included in the 2021 exhibition 'Frans Hals—The Male Portrait', held at the Wallace Collection,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Packer |first1=Lelia |last2=Roy |first2=Ashok |title=Frans Hals: The Male Portrait |year=2021 |publisher=Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd |location=London |isbn=978-1781301104}}</ref>
and was on display at the 2023 and 2024 'Frans Hals' exhibition held at the [[National Gallery]] and the [[Rijksmuseum]]; the latter venue being the first time the painting had been on loan to an exhibition.<ref>{{cite podcast | last=[[John Bezold|Bezold]] | first=John | title = The Laughing Cavalier | url = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frans-hals-paintings-the-podcast/id1622617082?i=1000659976384 | website = Frans Hals Paintings–The Podcast | date = 2024-07-20 | access-date = 2024-07-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornelis |first1=Bart |last2=Lammertse |first2=Friso |last3=van der Veen |first3=Jaap |last4=Rinnooy Kan |first4=Justine |title=Frans Hals |year=2023 |publisher=National Gallery |location=London |isbn=9781857097122}}</ref>
 	
The "eyes following you round the room" trope has long been a stand-by in British comedy, used by [[Pete and Dud]] in ''The Art Gallery'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.let.uu.nl/~bert.schouten/personal/Engels/TV2/art-gallery-key.htm |title=Peter Cook and Dudley Moore |access-date=2011-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924033939/http://www.let.uu.nl/~Bert.Schouten/personal/Engels/TV2/art-gallery-key.htm |archive-date=2008-09-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref> among many others, sometimes in the form of a portrait with cut-away eyes that can be used as a peephole.

==Derivatives==
The ''Laughing Cavalier'' is used by [[McEwan's]] beer as its logo. It has been modified showing the Laughing Cavalier enjoying the beer.<ref>Appel, Julie and Amy Guglielmo: "Brush Mona Lisa's Hair", p. 18. Sterling Publishing, 2006.</ref>

In the ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel|Scarlet Pimpernel]]'' adventure series by [[Emma Orczy]], ''[[The Laughing Cavalier (novel)|The Laughing Cavalier]]'' is a [[prequel]] recounting the story of the supposed subject of the painting, who is an ancestor of her main hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sir Percy Blakeney.

The ''Laughing Cavalier'' features in "The Case of the Mirror of Portugal", episode six of the TV series ''[[The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (TV series)|The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes]]''.

Television series ''[[The Monkees (TV series)|The Monkees]]'' features an episode (S02E05) that revolves around the painting and a modified copy as a plot device.

A small copy of the ''Laughing Cavalier'' can be seen hanging on a wall in the Harris home in the 1959 murder mystery film ''[[Sapphire (film)|Sapphire]]'' (40 mins).

==See also==
*[[List of paintings by Frans Hals]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*[[John Ingamells|Ingamells, John]], ''The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Pictures, Vol IV, Dutch and Flemish'', Wallace Collection, 1992, {{ISBN|0-900785-37-3}}
*Middelkoop, Norbert; Van Grevenstein-Kruse, Anne, ''Frans Hals: life, work, restoration'', 1989, Uniepers/Frans Halsmuseum/Alan Sutton Publishing, {{ISBN|0-86299-699-6}}
*Seymour Slive, ''Dutch Painting, 1600–1800'', Yale UP, 1995, {{ISBN|0-300-07451-4}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/arts/portrait/story/0,11109,739719,00.html Guardian Arts Feature on the Laughing Cavalier] by Jonathan Jones, Saturday 5 August 2000.  (Retrieved November 2005).

==External links==
* [http://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=64959 ''The Laughing Cavalier'' on the official Wallace collection website]

{{Frans Hals}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

[[Category:1624 paintings]]
[[Category:Portraits by Frans Hals]]
[[Category:Portraits of men]]
[[Category:Pourtalès Collection]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Wallace Collection]]
[[Category:Baroque painting]]