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

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

More Artwork

By Anthony van Dyck

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Lucas van Uffel (died 1637), Anthony van Dyck Flemish, Oil on canvas — Lucas van Uffel (died 1637)
Anthony van Dyck
ca. 1622

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
Workshop of Justus Sustermans
1597–1681

Diana and Actaeon, Bartholomeus Spranger Netherlandish, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash, white heightening, over traces of black chalk, on paper washed blue and pink — Diana and Actaeon
Bartholomeus Spranger
ca. 1580–85

Queen Henrietta Maria, Anthony van Dyck Flemish, Oil on canvas — Queen Henrietta Maria
Anthony van Dyck
1636

Corporation Banner of Crossbow Guild, Silk, Flemish — Corporation Banner of Crossbow Guild
Flemish
late 17th century

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