Franz Hals: Painter of The Laughing Cavalier

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

One of the most famous paintings in London is The Laughing Cavalier of 1624 by Franz Hals, the great portrait artist of the Dutch Golden Age whose fame has been somewhat eclipsed by Vermeer and Rembrandt. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb heads off to the Wallace Collection in London to see The Laughing Cavalier - alongside an exquisite, small selection of Hals' male portraits - and to discuss them with curator Lelia Packer. There is also analysis by contemporary artist Grayson Perry, who features in the exhibition's multimedia guide, created in collaboration with Imagineear. The guide, free with every exhibition ticket, brings the individual portraits to life through rich commentary provided by Perry and other experts.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When we think of the most eminent 17th century Dutch artists, names, Rembrandt and Vermeer
0:11.3	quickly spring to mind.
0:13.7	But another extraordinary portrait artist who was their contemporary and also one of the
0:18.3	greatest masters of the Dutch Golden Age is our subject today, Franz Hals.
0:25.5	His most famous painting is the Laughing Cavalier of 1624.
0:32.1	I'm delighted to let Dr Xavier Bray of the Wallace Collection and the artist and broadcaster
0:37.7	Grayson Perry remind you of this wonderful picture and tell you what they think we should
0:42.8	make of it.
0:43.8	Here we are in front of the Laughing Cavalier.
0:47.5	It's pride of place in the exhibition gallery.
0:50.5	What's your personal relationship with this picture?
0:53.2	Well, it's one of the first paintings I ever saw in my life because my mother I think
0:57.2	sort of collected coupons like on the soap powder or something like that and she had a
1:01.9	print of it hanging in our house.
1:04.0	One of the few pictures we had in our council house, it was sort of presented to me as
1:08.7	this sort of mythic artwork.
1:10.5	I remember the title and I just sort of took it on face value but he's of course he isn't
1:15.4	laughing, he's kind of smirking.
1:17.0	He's really a bit of a smirking Lothario I kind of see him as really.
1:21.9	And I suppose Cavalier because he's on the side of sensuality and decadence, that's
1:27.6	what I would say.
1:28.6	He's a bit of a bomb vivir isn't he really.
	...

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