Laughing Boy with a Flute Laughing Boy with a Flute Laughing boy with a flute is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted in 1626 and now in the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin. The painting shows a boy with a flute with his head at an angle facing the viewer. In his 1910 catalog of Frans Hals works Hofstede de Groot wrote: "32. A LAUGHING BOY WITH A FLUTE. B. 118 ; M. 230. Half-length ; life size, almost in full face. The line of the shoulders rises to the left. The head is also almost in full face, but slightly
Laughing Cavalier 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. The critic in the Athenaeum noted a brighter appearance, but also that "The man smiles rather than laughs". 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 "Laughing Cavalier" is used by McEwan's beer as its logo. It has been