The Laughing Cavalier

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.

This painting may have used cochineal pigment. This pigment comes from a bright red dye made from the crushed bodies of female cochineal insects and is derived from the insect's carminic acid, which produces the intense red color. This portrait of a young man in lavish clothing features a rich, textured jacket with a combination of deep reds and oranges. The figure’s face and hands are warmly painted with a glowing skin tone, and his crimson-red velvet jacket is a striking element in the composition. So, the vibrant reds in his jacket could very well be made from cochineal, as crimson red was commonly used in 17th-century portraits of noblemen to signify wealth and status. Additionally, cochineal was frequently mixed into fabric dyes to create rich velvet-like textures.