Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), one of the most celebrated and influential portraitists of all time, enjoyed an international career that took him from his native Flanders to Italy, France, and, ultimately, the court of Charles I in England. Van Dyck’s elegant manner and convincing evocation of a sitter’s inner life—whether real or imagined—made him the favorite portraitist of many of the most powerful and interesting figures of the seventeenth century. His sitters—poets, duchesses, painters, and generals—represent the social and artistic elite of his age, and his achievement in portraiture marked a turning point in the history of European painting.
Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture, on view only at New York’s Frick Collection, looks comprehensively at the artist’s activity and process as a portraitist. It is also the first major exhibition devoted to his work to be held in the United States in more than twenty years. Through approximately one hundred works, the show explores the versatility and inventiveness of a portrait specialist, the stylistic development of a draftsman and painter, and the efficiency and genius of an artist in action.
Organized chronologically around the different geographic chapters of Van Dyck’s career, the exhibition documents the artist’s development from an ambitious young apprentice into the most sought-after portrait painter in Europe.
The show also includes a small selection of comparative works by Van Dyck’s contemporaries, including Rubens, Jordaens, and Lely, and a special installation of the Iconographie, Van Dyck’s celebrated series of portrait prints. Lenders to the exhibition include the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the British Museum and National Gallery in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and major private collectors such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
ABOUT VAN DYCK
Born in 1599 to a family of patrician merchants, Anthony van Dyck endured a childhood marred by his mother’s early death and his father’s financial instability. In 1610, he enrolled as an apprentice to the painter Hendrick van Balen, although Peter Paul Rubens, Antwerp’s most celebrated artist, would exert a far greater influence on his development. By his late teens, the young Van Dyck was already assisting Rubens on large-scale commissions. A brief sojourn in England followed by a stay of roughly six years in Italy cemented his emergence as a mature painter in his own right, familiar with the great masters of the Italian Renaissance and the most sophisticated courts of Europe.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, 1623 Oil on canvas Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence (Pal. 82)
One of the most important loans in the exhibition was painted during this period: Van Dyck’s 1623 portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, from the Galleria Palatina at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.. In the Baroque period, Van Dyck's depiction of Bentivogliowas much emulated and became the benchmark for any portrait of a prince of the Church. Its exclusive trip to the Frick marks only the second time in the painting's history that it has left Italy.
In 1632, Van Dyck was appointed principal painter to Charles I of England. The portraits he produced over the following decade, before his premature death in 1641, are among his most celebrated and feature heavily in the exhibition.
Van Dyck, Charles I and Henrietta Maria Holding a Laurel Wreath, 1632, oil on canvas, Archiepiscopal Castle and Gardens, Kroměříž
Included in the exhibition is a horizontal portrait of Charles I and his queen Henrietta Maria, now in the collection of Archiepiscopal Castle and Gardens, Kroměříž, The Czech Republic. This remarkable canvas has never before traveled to the United States.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Queen Henrietta Maria with Jeffery Hudson, 1633
Oil on canvasNational Gallery of Art, Washington; Samuel H. Kress Collection
Coming from the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., is Van Dyck’s portrait Queen Henrietta Maria with Jeffrey Hudson.
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) The Princesses Elizabeth and Anne, Daughters of Charles I, 1637 Oil on canvas Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; purchased with the aid of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish Office and the Art Fund 1996
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Among these is the portrait of Frans Snyders, a fellow painter and close artistic collaborator, purchased in the summer of 1909 by Frick, who also acquired that same year
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Painted about 1620 when the artist was roughly twenty years old, the two portraits reveal the prodigy’s startling talent, expressed in likenesses that combine supreme elegance with a subtle element of melancholy.
Other Frick-owned works included in the exhibition will be
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Genoese Noblewoman, ca. 1625–27
Oil on canvasThe Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Oil on canvasNational Gallery of Art, Washington; Samuel H. Kress Collection
Coming from the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., is Van Dyck’s portrait Queen Henrietta Maria with Jeffrey Hudson.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) The Princesses Elizabeth and Anne, Daughters of Charles I, 1637 Oil on canvas Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; purchased with the aid of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish Office and the Art Fund 1996
A more intimate work of Princesses Elizabeth and Anne comes to New York from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
In addition to showcasing notable works from European collections, Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture will also shine a spotlight on important paintings by Van Dyck from American private and public collections, many of which have not been included in previous exhibitions on the artist. These paintings are a legacy of the longtime fascination that Van Dyck has exerted on American collectors, including Henry Clay Frick, who acquired no fewer than eight paintings by the artist.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Frans Snyders, ca. 1620
Oil on canvas
The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Oil on canvas
The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Among these is the portrait of Frans Snyders, a fellow painter and close artistic collaborator, purchased in the summer of 1909 by Frick, who also acquired that same year
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Margareta de Vos, ca. 1620
Oil on canvas
The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
the pendant portrait of Snyders’s wife, Margareta de Vos.
Painted about 1620 when the artist was roughly twenty years old, the two portraits reveal the prodigy’s startling talent, expressed in likenesses that combine supreme elegance with a subtle element of melancholy.
Other Frick-owned works included in the exhibition will be
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Lady Anne Carey, Later Viscountess Claneboye and Countess of Clanbrassil, ca. 1636
Oil on canvas
The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Oil on canvas
The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
the full-length canvas Lady Anne Carey, Later Viscountess Claneboye and Countess of Clanbrassil,
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Genoese Noblewoman, ca. 1625–27
Oil on canvasThe Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
and the recently conserved Portrait of a Genoese Noblewoman.
APPROACH TO PREPARATION OF PORTRAITS A MAJOR THEME
Van Dyck’s singularity is most apparent in his approach to preparing a portrait, and initial sketches and unfinished paintings compose one of the major themes of the show. Portrait drawings by his contemporaries, including Peter Lely and Jacob Jordaens, will highlight the distinct way he created his celebrated portraits. Whereas many artists made detailed studies of a sitter’s face before beginning work on a painting, Van Dyck preferred rough sketches that mapped a sitter’s pose but left many details unresolved. He would then usually paint the sitter directly from life, studying his or her face without an intermediary drawing.
Anthony Van Dyck, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1640 Oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville; Museum Purchase, Preston Pope Satterwhite Fund
This approach is apparent especially in unfinished works, such as the Portrait of a Woman from the Speed Museum in Louisville, above. Here, the haunting depiction of the unknown woman’s face contrasts with passages intended to be completed by studio assistants. The Frick’s exhibition will reunite preparatory works and finished paintings, in some cases for the first time since they left Van Dyck’s studio several hundred years ago.
Van Dyck, Portrait Study of Nicholas Lanier, ca. 1628, black chalk, heightened with white chalk,on blue paper, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Lady Murray of Henderland gift 1860 as a memorial of her husband, Lord Henderland
A preparatory drawing of the English court musician and painter Nicholas Lanier, above, from the Scottish National Gallery, for example,
Van Dyck, Nicholas Lanier, ca. 1628, oil on canvas, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
will be displayed alongside the related portrait, on loan from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, above.
In the drawing, Van Dyck worked with black and white chalk on blue paper, swiftly laying out the fall of fabric of Lanier’s cloak, the play of his curls, his elegant hands, and his almost supercilious expression. Nonetheless, the artist made a number of changes in the final composition: instead of holding out a glove in his right hand, Lanier’s arm is akimbo, the hand tucked invisibly at his side. Less obviously, Van Dyck removed a lock of hair to leave Lanier’s temple exposed. These alterations indicate how Van Dyck continued to think through his composition as he transitioned from preparatory drawing to canvas. Remarking on the artist’s meticulous process, Lanier told the painter Peter Lely that he “sat seven entire days” for his portrait, but “was not permitted so much as once to see it till [Van Dyck] had perfectly finished the face to his own satisfaction.” Such anecdotes combinewith the physical evidence of Van Dyck’s works to allow for the exhibition’s reconstruction of the artist’s working method.
PAN-EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTION OF HIS WORK IN PRINT
Van Dyck made astute use of reproductive prints to ensure that his portraits had apan-European distribution. This is particularly apparent in his so-called Iconographie series of printed portraits, depicting a range of sitters who included fellow Flemish artists, learned scholars, statesmen, and aristocratic ladies. The Iconographie will receive its own special installation at the Frick, encompassing prints, drawings, oil sketches, and one of the earliest bound volumes of Van Dyck’s portrait prints, on loan from the Rijksmuseum. As well as the work of professional engravers, the Iconographie features some of Van Dyck’s autograph etchings, which are among the greatest prints ever made.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Frans Snyders, ca. 1625–37 Etching Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; Gift of Walter C. Klein, Class of 1939
These include Van Dyck’s etching, above after his portrait of Frans Snyders (illustrated above).
In his paintings of Snyders and his wife, the young Van Dyck depicted the pair amidst various trappings of prosperity—elegant clothing, furniture, and a distant view of parkland. In his print, made more than a decade later, Van Dyck stripped Snyders’s portrait down to just head and shoulders. Translated from oil on canvas into a new medium, the etching reveals the variety of Van Dyck’s graphic vocabulary. Stippling maps the contours of Snyders’s brow, cheekbones, and forehead, yielding to loose crosshatching in areas of greater shadow. Calligraphic lines, meanwhile, convey Snyders’s nonchalantly arranged hair and upturned mustache. Such a minimal etching was intended to appeal to the most sophisticated collectors, but Van Dyck also collaborated with highly skilled professional engravers to create more traditional prints for wider distribution. To assist these engravers, Van Dyck prepared both drawings and exquisite grisailles, or gray-scale oil sketches. In the exhibition, four of these grisailles, will demonstrate Van Dyck’s unusual mastery of this refined medium.
BEYOND SOCIETY: FAMILY AND SELF-PORTRAITS
Van Dyck used portraiture to represent the very pinnacle of contemporary society, but it also provided him with a vehicle to explore intimate relationships and his own identity. The exhibition will include portraits of
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Mary, Lady van Dyck, née Ruthven, ca. 1640 Oil on canvas Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Van Dyck’s wife, Mary,
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Van Dyck was an avid self-portraitist throughout his career, and four of his self-portraits will be included in the exhibition.
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Self-Portrait, ca. 1613–15 Oil on panel Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Self-Portrait, ca. 1620–21 Oil on canvas The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Mary, Lady van Dyck, née Ruthven, ca. 1640 Oil on canvas Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Van Dyck’s wife, Mary,
Van Dyck, Margaret Lemon, ca. 1638, private collection, New York
as well as the woman believed to have been his mistress, the courtesan Margaret Lemon. Lemon appears in three-quarter profile, delicately touching the fabric at her shoulder in a gesture of refinement that would fascinate subsequent generations of artists. The painting, long considered lost but now in a New York private collection, inspired a spate of imitations during the seventeenth century.
Van Dyck was an avid self-portraitist throughout his career, and four of his self-portraits will be included in the exhibition.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Self-Portrait, ca. 1613–15 Oil on panel Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Self-Portrait, ca. 1620–21 Oil on canvas The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
In the earliest of these, executed about 1613–15, an adolescent Van Dyck turns his head to study his own likeness. His piercing stare and the boldness of his brushwork presaged a career that would prove seminal for the history of European painting. Visitors to Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture will have an unprecedented chance to immerse themselves in that achievement.
PUBLICATION
A landmark volume accompanies the exhibition, providing a comprehensive survey of the portrait drawings, paintings, and prints of Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), one of the most celebrated portraitists of all time. Written by Stijn Alsteens and Adam Eaker with contributions by An Van Camp, Ashmolean Museum; Xavier F. Salomon, The Frick Collection; and Bert Watteeuw, Rubenianum, Antwerp; the book showcases the full range of Van Dyck’s fascinating international career and makes a compelling case for the distinctiveness and importance of his work. Published by Yale University Press in association with The Frick Collection, 9 ½ x 11 inches, 267 illustrations.
More images from the exhibition:
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Prince William of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal, 1641 Oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Pomponne II de Bellièvre, ca. 1637–40 Oil on canvas Seattle Art Museum
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) James Stanley, Lord Strange, Later Seventh Earl of Derby, with His Wife, Charlotte, and Their Daughter, ca. 1636 Oil on canvas The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
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Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) John Suckling, ca. 1638 Oil on canvas The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) John Suckling, ca. 1638 Oil on canvas The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Nicolaes Rockox, 1636 Oil on panel Private collection\
· Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Adriaen Brouwer, ca. 1634 Oil on panel The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE, Boughton House, Northamptonshire
· Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Portrait Study of a Man on Horseback with His Groom, 1620– 21 (or 1628–32?) Pen and brown ink The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Harold K. Hochschild
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· Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) François Langlois Playing a Musette, 1641 (?) Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on buff paper Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Inigo Jones, 1632–36 Black chalk, pen and brown ink, squared for transfer in black chalk; laid down The Duke of Devonshire and the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement, Chatsworth, Derbyshire
· Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Self-Portrait, ca. 1627–35 Etching (first state) The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
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· Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) Lucas Vorsterman, ca. 1631 (?) Etching (first state) The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
One of the most important loans in the exhibition was painted during this period: Van Dyck’s 1623 portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, from the Galleria Palatina at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.. In the Baroque period, Van Dyck's depiction of Bentivogliowas much emulated and became the benchmark for any portrait of a prince of the Church. Its exclusive trip to the Frick marks only the second time in the painting's history that it has left Italy.
In 1632, Van Dyck was appointed principal painter to Charles I of England. The portraits he produced over the following decade, before his premature death in 1641, are among his most celebrated and feature heavily in the exhibition.