Anthony Van Dyck, copy after
SELF PORTRAIT
Oil on canvas. 80 x 61 cm.
This self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck was long considered to be an authentic work by the artist because of its high quality. Scholars like Gustav Glück, Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Ludwig Burchard und Erik Larssen have ascribed it to van Dyck. In fact, is a copy after a lost original.
The self-portrait depicts van Dyck with a golden chain, probably the one he received from Charles I. as a knight of the English kingdom. In an apparently spontaneous turn he looks at the beholder, holding his black coat elegantly in his right hand. The painting is of importance for the self representation of the artist as Van Dyck used the head for one of his rare etchings by his own hand. This etching again was altered by Jacob Neeffs after van Dyck´s death and was used for the frontispiece of an edition of the Iconographia, van Dycks collection of famous men of his time. Thus this portrait was to shape van Dyck´s posthumous image.
Provenance
Edward Gray, Harringay House, Hornsey, London 1838. - Stayner Holford, Westonbirt. - Sir George Lindsay Holford, Westonbirt. - Christie´s Sale, 17.5.1928, lot 64. - Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London. - Captain W.H. Pollen, M.C. - Christie´s Sale, London, 17.5.1957, lot 51. - David M. Koetser, Zurich. - Private collection, Germany.
Literature
George Lindsay Holford und Robert Benson: The Holford Collection. Oxford 1924, ill. LXXV. - Gustav Glück: Anton van Dyck. 2. ed. Stuttgart und Berlin 1931, ill. VII. - Erik Larsen: The Paintings of Anthony van Dyck. 2 vols. Freren 1988, no. 1017. - Susan J. Barnes et altri (Ed.): Van Dyck. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven und London, p. 628, no. IV. A1 (after van Dyck). - Exh. cat. Antwerpen/Amsterdam 1999: Anthony van Dyck as a Printmaker. New York 1999, p. 92 a. 98, with ill.
Exhibitions
"Sir Anthony van Dyck", Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, 7.11.-7.12.1968, no. 41.