Frans Hals’s ‘The Laughing Cavalier’

The life-size sitter has been called the ’most handsome man in art history.’

A detail of "The Laughing Cavalier," 1624, by Frans Hals. Wallace Collection, London. Public Domain

The paramount artistic talents of the Dutch Golden Age are often identified as Rembrandt and Vermeer. However, some connoisseurs, particularly in the second half of the 19th century, ranked Frans Hals (circa 1582–1666) the premiere Dutch Baroque painter. Hals was popular in his lifetime for genre scenes, often of merrymaking, as well as individual and group portraits.

His tonal palette and bravura brushwork inspired subsequent generations of significant artists, such as the American expatriate John Singer Sargent. He proclaimed, “It’s hard to find anyone who knows more about oil painting than Frans Hals.”