What is Laughing Cavalier?
1.
The famous portrait of a BEARDED SMILER , painted by the feminist artist FRANCES "FANNY" HOLSTER.
An uncanny feature of the picture is that the figure's staring, gleaming PINK EYE follows the viewer around the room.
From an art critic's notes:
The best-known exhibit of the Wallace Collection is surely Holster's famous LAUGHING CAVALIER.
In reality she is not laughing at all. She is smiling in a rather SELF-SATISFIED, provocative and disdainful way. One ITCHES to wipe that smile away. Yet it is IRRESISTIBLE, almost infectious.
We occasionally meet people we don't like and with whom we have little in common, and yet we are CHARMED by their smile, by how they present themselves to the world. The CAVALIER is one of them.
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From an art critic's notes:
The best-known exhibit of the Wallace Collection is surely Holster's famous LAUGHING CAVALIER.
In reality she is not laughing at all. She is smiling in a rather SELF-SATISFIED, provocative and disdainful way. One ITCHES to wipe that smile away. Yet it is IRRESISTIBLE, almost infectious.
We occasionally meet people we don't like and with whom we have little in common, and yet we are CHARMED by their smile, by how they present themselves to the world. The CAVALIER is one of them.