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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 196881, member: 2844&quot;]The painting is only nicknamed &#039;the laughing cavalier&#039;.</p><p>The subject is by no means a cavalier, but probably a member of a local guild or town militia.</p><p>The painting is by Frans Hals, and painted when The Netherlands were a republic. There were no cavaliers, most of the country was governed by what the Dutch call &#039;patricians&#039;. Even today Dutch patrician families are generally held in higher regard than the few aristocrats, because they are the ones that created The Netherlands.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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