Laughing Cavalier Laughing Cavalier The Laughing Cavalier (1624) is a portrait by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals in the Wallace Collection in London, which has been described as "one of the most brilliant of all Baroque portraits". The title is an invention of the Victorian public and press, dating from its exhibition in the opening display at the Bethnal Green Museum in 1872–75, just after its arrival in England, after which it was regularly reproduced as a print, and became among of the best known old master paintings in Britain. The unknown subject is in fact not laughing, but can
Jean Cavalier him and he settled at Dublin, where he published "Memoirs of the Wars of the Cévennes under Col. Cavalier", written in French and translated into English with a dedication to Lord Carteret (1726). Though Cavalier received, no doubt, assistance in the publication of the "Memoirs", it is nonetheless true that he provided the materials, and that his work is the most valuable source for the history of his life. He was made a general on 27 October 1735, and on 25 May 1738 was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. Writing in the following year (26 August 1739) he says: "I