“The Laughing Cavalier” by Frans Hals in the Great Gallery of The Wallace Collection, Marylebone, London, England

From The Wallace Collection website:

A highlight of Hals’s career, this portrait stands apart in its lively immediacy and in the intricacy of the costume depicted. Portrayed at age twenty-six, the life-size sitter wears the latest French fashions accessible only to the Dutch elite. His beautifully embroidered doublet is decorated with emblems associated with fortune, strength, love and virtue. He is most likely a bachelor due to his dashing attire and left-facing orientation (in paired portraits of married couples, men usually turned rightward to face their wives). The picture was given its catchy title around 1888 and, despite the fact that the sitter is neither laughing nor a ‘cavalier’, it has never been renamed.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Frans Hals (1582/3 – 1666)
Date: 1624

Image details
Date: 8 December 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 640
Licensing: Image of a Wallace Collection asset. This image cannot be licensed.