VAN DYCK 1599 - 1641
Royal Academy of Arts, London
11 September - 10 December 1999
Anthony van Dyck was born in Antwerp in 1599. To mark the four hundredth anniversary of his birth, The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, are organising a major retrospective of the artist’s work. This collaboration brings together two of the cities in which Van Dyck built his international career as a painter. Her Majesty The Queen and Their Majesties King Albert II and Queen Paola of Belgium have graciously agreed to act as patrons of the exhibition. With over one hundred works this exhibition will offer a rare chance to see Van Dyck’s mythological and religious paintings as well as a great assembly of his portraits - of Antwerp burghers, Genoese nobles, the Stuart royal family, poets, statesmen, courtiers, friends and children.
Anthony Van Dyck was a child prodigy, whose exceptional talent was recognised by Rubens. By 1618, aged only 19, he had established his own workshop. His paintings from this early period were religious works for the churches of Antwerp as well as mythological paintings and portraits. His fame was such that he was invited to visit the Court of England where he worked for King James I, the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Buckingham. From 1621 to 1627 he lived and worked in Genoa, visiting Venice, Rome, Palermo and Naples. Genoa was the most important international centre of banking and mercantile shipping, and Van Dyck painted the Genoese aristocracy and their children to brilliant effect. He returned to Antwerp in 1628 painting portraits at the court and altarpieces for the great churches of the city.
In 1632 Anthony Van Dyck was finally persuaded to accept the position of Court Painter to Charles I. The painter was knighted, presented with a gold chain and medallion, and given a studio on the river at Blackfriars where he painted the royal family and members of their court. In the space of seven and a half years he produced perhaps as many as four hundred portraits, ranging from grandiose portrayals of the King on horseback to more informal paintings of the less exalted courtiers, the diplomats, poets and musicians who were his friends. He completely eclipsed the rather wooden portraiture of his contemporaries in England, and set a style and standard that influenced artists from Sir Peter Lely to Reynolds, Gainsborough and Lawrence. Although many of his subject paintings made in England have been lost, a haunting Cupid and Psyche from the Royal Collection illustrates his genius for romantic and poetic works.
During this time he still visited Flanders and painted many fine pictures there. By 1640, he was anxious to leave England, but dogged by ill health, and unable to obtain a secure position in France, he returned to die in London in December 1641. He was buried in old St Paul’s Cathedral, his grave bearing a Latin inscription which in translation reads: `....while he lived he gave immortality to many. Charles I, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, provided this monument for Sir Anthony van Dyck’. By July 1642 the country was on the brink of Civil War.
The exhibition has been organised by the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The exhibition has been curated by Dr Christopher Brown, Director of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and an expert on Van Dyck.
Significant loans have been promised by Her Majesty The Queen; the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp; the National Gallery, London; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; The Museo del Prado, Madrid; Palazzo Rosso, Genova; Museo Capitolino, Rome and the Musée du Louvre, Paris, as well as the galleries at Brussels, Dresden, Amsterdam, Vicenza, Melbourne, Budapest, and elsewhere. In addition some works in private collections, rarely seen by the public, will be shown.
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD
