The many portraits of the Renaissance range from hideous to beautiful, but almost all of them are solemn. They reflect a person sitting for hours at a time to have their image recorded for posterity. But in 1624, Dutch artist Frans Hals painted this portrait of a young man, unnamed but supposedly a wealthy merchant, gazing at you with a confident smirk. His expression stood out from every other portrait one might encounter at the time.
This portrait, now known as The Laughing Cavalier, has been used in all kinds of advertisements. It was painted on a wall as street art of couple of years ago. Artist artist Tam Joseph used it as an inspiration for a portrait of Jimi Hendrix. And that smile is a reaction picture for a variety of internet memes today. Now, finally, the original portrait is on exhibit at London's National Gallery in the show The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals through January. Read about Hals' portrait and its many uses over its 400 years at BBC Culture. -via Digg