Laughing Cavalier

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This article is about the painting. For other uses, see The Laughing Cavalier (disambiguation).
Laughing Cavalier
Oil on canvas
Dimensions83 cm × 67.3 cm (33 in × 26.5 in)
LocationWallace Collection, London

The Laughing Cavalier (1624) is a portrait by the

old master paintings in Britain.[2] The unknown subject is in fact not laughing, but can be said to have an enigmatic smile, much amplified by his upturned moustache.[3]

Description

The portrait measures 83 × 67.3 cm (32.7 × 26.5 in) and is inscribed at top right Æ'TA SVÆ 26/Aº1624, which expands to 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.[4] 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.[5]

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 emblems in the embroidery: signifying "the pleasures and pains of love" are "bees, arrows, flaming cornucopiae, lovers' knots and tongues of fire", while an obelisk or pyramid signifies strength and Mercury's cap and caduceus fortune.[6]

In general, commissioned portraits such as this rarely showed adults smiling until the late 18th century, though smiling is often seen in tronies 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.[7]

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.[8]

History

The painting's

Athenaeum noted a brighter appearance, but also that "The man smiles rather than laughs".[10] Hertford's collection was bequeathed to his natural son Sir Richard Wallace Bt.
, whose widow donated it and his London house to the nation as the Wallace Collection.

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,[11] 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.[12]

In the

Emma Orczy, 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.

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

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Slive, p.38
  2. ^ Da Silva, José (31 August 2023). "Drunkard or genius? London's National Gallery gets up close and personal with Frans Hals". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  3. ^ Ingamells, 136, and note 1
  4. ^ Ingamells, 135
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Ingamells, p.135–136; Slive p.38
  7. ^ Middelkoop and Van Grevenstein-Kruse, 76; Ekkart and Buvelot, 106; Slive, 38
  8. ^ "How the Laughing Cavalier keeps an eye on everybody", The Guardian, by Ian Sample, 22 September 2004
  9. ^ Ingamells, 136
  10. ^ Ingamells, note 1
  11. ^ "Peter Cook and Dudley Moore". Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  12. ^ Appel, Julie and Amy Guglielmo: "Brush Mona Lisa's Hair", p. 18. Sterling Publishing, 2006.

References

External links

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