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Study for a Portrait of a Lady

early 17th century
Not on view
The Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, Rubens's most brilliant pupil, streaked across the history of British art like a shooting star. After working (1620–21) at the court of James I, van Dyck returned to London in 1632 at the invitation of Charles I. There, he portrayed the sophisticated and privileged members of the Caroline court in a suitably glamorous manner. His distinctive lace-and-satin costumes and dazzling brushwork set the standard for later British portrait painters.
Here, van Dyck sketched the dress and hands of an unidentified female sitter (the finished portrait is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich) using characteristically agitated, darting strokes. The woman's Flemish costume suggests a date of 1627–32 or 1634–35, when van Dyck was in Antwerp and Brussels, away from the political and religious agitation of the English court.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Study for a Portrait of a Lady
  • Artist: Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, Antwerp 1599–1641 London)
  • Date: early 17th century
  • Medium: Black chalk heightened with white chalk on brown paper
  • Dimensions: 19 7/8 × 11 13/16 in. (50.5 × 30 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
  • Object Number: 1972.118.279
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Queen Henrietta Maria, Anthony van Dyck Flemish, Oil on canvas
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Anthony van Dyck
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Cosimo II de' Medici (1590–1621), Grand Duke of Tuscany, Justus Sustermans Flemish, Oil on canvas, transferred from wood, Flemish
Cosimo II de' Medici (1590–1621), Grand Duke of Tuscany
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1597–1681
Portrait of Nicolas Trigault in Chinese Costume, Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, Black, red, and white chalk, blue pastel, and pen and brown and black ink on light brown laid paper
Portrait of Nicolas Trigault in Chinese Costume
Peter Paul Rubens
1617
Lucas van Uffel (died 1637), Anthony van Dyck Flemish, Oil on canvas
Lucas van Uffel (died 1637)
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1622
Corporation Banner of Crossbow Guild, Silk, Flemish
Corporation Banner of Crossbow Guild
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