Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Title: The Laughing Cavalier, the 'Mad Marquis’ and the Revival of Frans Hals
Speaker: Dr. Lelia Packer (Curator of Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German and
Pre-1600 Paintings, The Wallace Collection, London)
Abstract: The Wallace Collection is fortunate to possess one of the most iconic works of Western Art, 'The Laughing Cavalier' painted by Frans Hals in 1624. The dashing young man, confidently posed with his left arm akimbo, has been charming audiences for over a century since The Wallace Collection opened its doors to the public in 1900. Yet the painting became a sensation a few decades before that.
This paper explores how the historic purchase of 'The Laughing Cavalier' in 1865 by the 4th Marquess of Hertford, one of the main founders of the Wallace Collection, was pivotal in the revival of Frans Hals’s reputation in the nineteenth century. It traces the famous Pourtalès-Gorgier sale in Paris, where Lord Hertford famously outbid baron James de Rothschild by paying the astronomical sum of 51,000 francs (more than six times the initial estimate for the picture!), making this one of the greatest art sales in history. The paper examines the publicity around the sale that led to the immediate fame of the painting and of the artist. It also explores the influence of the sale on contemporary collectors and the boom in Hals sales that ensued. During the twentieth century, 'The Laughing Cavalier' was reproduced countless times and even figured as a pub sign. The paper concludes with an examination of how, in time, 'The Laughing Cavalier', became an icon.
Title: The Laughing Cavalier, the 'Mad Marquis’ and the Revival of Frans Hals
Speaker: Dr. Lelia Packer (Curator of Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German and
Pre-1600 Paintings, The Wallace Collection, London)
Abstract: The Wallace Collection is fortunate to possess one of the most iconic works of Western Art, 'The Laughing Cavalier' painted by Frans Hals in 1624. The dashing young man, confidently posed with his left arm akimbo, has been charming audiences for over a century since The Wallace Collection opened its doors to the public in 1900. Yet the painting became a sensation a few decades before that.
This paper explores how the historic purchase of 'The Laughing Cavalier' in 1865 by the 4th Marquess of Hertford, one of the main founders of the Wallace Collection, was pivotal in the revival of Frans Hals’s reputation in the nineteenth century. It traces the famous Pourtalès-Gorgier sale in Paris, where Lord Hertford famously outbid baron James de Rothschild by paying the astronomical sum of 51,000 francs (more than six times the initial estimate for the picture!), making this one of the greatest art sales in history. The paper examines the publicity around the sale that led to the immediate fame of the painting and of the artist. It also explores the influence of the sale on contemporary collectors and the boom in Hals sales that ensued. During the twentieth century, 'The Laughing Cavalier' was reproduced countless times and even figured as a pub sign. The paper concludes with an examination of how, in time, 'The Laughing Cavalier', became an icon.
