What Is the Enigmatic Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals Hiding?

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One of the most popular paintings in the Wallace Collection in London, “The Laughing Cavalier” by Frans Hals has a presence all its own, returning the viewer's gaze with an amused smile. I’ve always felt that the painting is misnamed. "The Laughing Cavalier" brings to mind the titles of old Hollywood swashbucklers, like “The Kissing Bandit” or “The Elusive Pimpernel”. And after all, the man on the portrait isn't actually laughing at all.

The Laughing Cavalier. 1624. Frans Hals

So, why has this portrait by Frans Hals become so popular and who is the inscrutably smirking young man portrayed?

A Dandy from the Dutch Golden Age  

“The Laughing Cavalier” was painted by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals in 1624. The sitter’s name is unknown. His costume is lavish, displaying the flamboyance of the latest French styles in its fabulous embroidery, silks, and lace. He wears a doublet embroidered with symbols in colored and gold thread over a shirt adorned with intricate lace at the wrists. True to the fashion of his time, he wears a many-layered ruff collar around his neck and a sash from expensive material tied at the waist. The doublet is fastened with elaborate round, golden buttons. His broad hat is also the latest word in fashion.

Despite its name, the young man in the portrait isn’t laughing. There are other paintings by Hals where he portrays his sitters laughing, like in his paintings “Malle Babbe” or “Young Man and Woman in an Inn”. 

Left to right: Malle Babbe and Young Man and Woman in an Inn by Frans Hals 

The Laughing Cavalier’s expression is more ambiguous. He is portrayed looking slightly down at the viewer, giving him a bit of an arrogant, self-satisfied air. But he also seems to hover on the brink of a smile, as if he’s really amused by something but is keeping himself from chuckling outright. His gaze is direct, yet the expression in his eyes is not straightforward. Some people even see the young man's knowing expression as slightly sinister. Whatever else he is, the dashing cavalier seems to be pleased with himself and enjoying his dramatic pose. 

Detail of The Laughing Cavalier. 1624. Frans Hals

The inscription on the top right of the painting reads “AETA SUAE 26 / A° 1624” (short for aetatis suae 26, anno 1624) which translates from Latin as “in the year of his age 26, in the year 1624”.

So, who is the sitter? He is a well-to-do man, possibly a merchant, and most likely a bachelor, as experts at the Wallace Collection point out. Firstly, he is portrayed facing left, whereas it was common practice for married men to be painted facing right, and there would usually be a paired portrait of their wife, facing left.

Another hint that the young man on the portrait could be a bachelor can be derived from the symbols on his costume, which revolve around love and virtue, possibly indicating that he was busy looking for a bride.

Benefits of Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve

Details in the portraits by old masters are known to often carry hidden meaning and significance. The portrait of the “Laughing Cavalier” is no exception to this rule. The detailed symbols embroidered on the fabric of his doublet are actually emblems – popular images that stood for a concept, idea, or moral value. Emblems were extensively used in the 16th and 17th centuries, often taken on as personal symbols and even gathered into lavishly illustrated emblem books.

The emblems on the young man’s doublet include some of the following symbols, along with their possible meanings:

  • Torch – a common symbol of hope and enlightenment, but could also symbolize passion and life force
  • Bow and Arrows – associated with Cupid, who was believed to inflame people’s hearts with love when he shot at them with his arrows
  • Column – symbol of the Christian virtue of temperance, but could also represent support or strength 
  • Wings – divine will, swiftness, inspiration

  • Bee – love’s sting, the pain of love, but also industry and diligence
  • Lovers’ knot – indestructible bond between two lovers (as in ‘tying the knot’)
  • Winged caduceus – the caduceus was a staff with two entwining snakes, an attribute of the Greek god Mercury. It was seen as a symbol of rhetoric; here it is winged, suggesting inspired words that will bring the young wearer success in his courtship 

The symbolic meanings of the images on the young man’s doublet make it probable that the portrait was commissioned to represent a rich young bachelor in the most eligible light. He is shown as rich, young, and romantic, with a confident air and a knowing smile to help him charm the ladies.  

Admirers of the Laughing Cavalier 

Apparently, the charismatic young man on the portrait continued to charm the ladies up to the end of the Victorian era. In 1909, the English painter Jessica Hayllar (1858 – 1940) included the dashing gentleman in her painting “A Sunny Corner”. It’s a sunlit still life that captures a ray of sunlight shining on a profusion of white flowers and miscellaneous artistically displayed works of art. You can glimpse a print of the “Laughing Cavalier” behind the golden-and-white Japanese screen that serves as a setting for the spectacular potted azaleas. 

 A Sunny Corner. 1909. Jessica Hayllar

Inspired by the fascinating Baroque portrait, the novelist Emma Orczy (1865 –1947), author of the historical adventure stories featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel, wrote a prequel about Sir Percy Blakeney’s ancestor, the Laughing Cavalier. Here’s a description of the portrait from the novel:

“A joy to the artist every bit of him, the tone, the pose, the line, the color and that face full of life, of the joy of living, that merry twinkle in the eyes, that laugh that forever hovers on the lips. We all stand before it, marveling at the artist's skill, for we know that the portrait is true to the life; we know that it is true, because we know the man; his whole character is there indelibly writ upon the canvas by the master-hand of a genius.”

"The Laughing Cavalier" in the 1914 issue of Adventure, an American pulp magazine.

Fun Facts About the “Laughing Cavalier”

  • Whatever angle you look from at this Baroque portrait, the cavalier’s eyes will appear to follow you. This is due to the way the human eye interprets the painted surface, trying to reconstruct three-dimensional reality. 
  • The “Laughing Cavalier” has nothing whatsoever to do with the Cavaliers supporting King Charles I against the Roundheads. The opposition of the Roundheads (supporting Oliver Cromwell) and the Cavaliers (supporting the king) started roughly in 1641, whereas the portrait was painted in 1624, and there’s no indication that the man portrayed is English.
  • Vincent van Gogh seems to have been particularly impressed with Frans Hals’ use of subdued but nuanced colors, saying, "Frans Hals must have had 27 blacks".

Further Reading:

University of Michigan, Dictionary of Symbolism

Church Monuments Society, Symbolism Glossary

Frans Hals‘The Portraitist’, UMAID Art Gallery

You think you know about Frans Hals’s The Laughing Cavalier? He’s not laughing or a cavalier by Waldemar Januszak

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