The Laughing Cavalier (novel) The Laughing Cavalier (novel) The Laughing Cavalier is a 1913 adventure novel by Baroness Orczy, which revolves around Percy Blake, a foreign adventurer and ancestor of Orczy's famous character, the Scarlet Pimpernel. The story takes place in Holland in 1623/1624 and is partly inspired by Frans Hals' painting "The Laughing Cavalier": in the novel, Blake is Frans Hals' adopted son and the man who poses for the painting of the Laughing Cavalier. The sequel to this book, continuing the story of Percy Blake, is "The First Sir Percy". In March 1623, the Dutch nobleman Willem van Oldenbarnevelt, Lord of Stoutenburg,
A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier is a mid 17th century painting by Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch the Younger. Done in oil on wood, the work depicts a young woman playing a theorbo while her lover looks on. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ter Borch's painting portrays a scene in which a young woman plays a theorbo-lute (a stringed instrument) while her suitor sits nearby. The man is a cavalier, a 17th century soldier, and he is seen to be sitting atop