Exhibit: Anthony Van Dyke
Last Saturday after walking the Champs Elysees, I went off to see the exhibit of portraits by Van Dyke I'd been anticipating for weeks. The exhibit, which was crowded into six small rooms on the first floor of the Jacquemart-Andre museum, was fantastic.
Aside from the problems of extremely crowded rooms--which admittedly would be crowded with more than eight people in them and there were many more than eight, including a tour group--the exhibit was simply brilliant. Small, focused and breathtaking.
There were mostly painted portraits, from Van Dyke's early years in the Netherlands and Rome, and then from his time in England during the 1630s under commision to Charles I and his court. There were also a few pencil and pen sketches.
I bought the catalogue, which has very good reproductions of the various paintings.
Below is a self-portrait of Van Dyke, pained while in Rome when he was in his 20s.
Van Dyke is known for his portraits of Charles I of England. This one--not a great photo here--is an amazingly beautiful portrait in person. Charles I was an unfortunate king but a fascinating subject for a great painter. In this one, Charles wears the insignia of the Order of The Garter, as well as a rather fabulous lace collar and baroque pearl earring in his left ear. The king always looks so elegant in these Van Dyke paintings but you can see, too, why he failed as a great ruler. Van Dyke's portraits are a bit too perceptive and revealing.
This is an absolutely gorgeous sketch of Charles that never materialized into a final painting. Again, the elegance, the details of expression, beard, and hair are simply marvelous.
Two of my favorite Van Dykes are the portraits he did of Charles' children, but only one sketch was included in this exhibit. Both paintings currently belong to Queen Elizabeth II and are hung at Windsor. One of my favorite parts of the visit to Windsor we take with the Oxford program are the Queen's paintings... it's a nice collection. I have several favorites that I fantasize about smuggling out under my coat. Not that they would fit, and not that I would ever do such a thing...
Pearl
Link: Musee Jacquemart-Andre
