West End Exhibitions : Van Dyck and Britain | Tate Britain

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The Review - WEST END EXHIBITION
Published: 20 March 2009

Self-portrait (1640)

Van Dyck:
Britain’s best painter?

VAN DYCK AND BRITAIN
Tate Britain

HE might be known as the Dutch master but that doesn’t stop us trying to poach him as one of our own.
Anthony van Dyck spent less than eight full years in Britain but still managed to paint more than 50 magnificent oils.
So what did he give and what did he take from our sceptred isle? Well portraiture was always his game, and the lifeless pap his contemporaries were churning out must have inspired him.
Charles I certainly fell for his charms, resulting in that iconic image of the feted King on horseback and many other deceptive portraits to make his high-society paymasters every inch the rulers.
Working in the run-up to the Civil War, van Dyck portrayed many of the heroes and villains of the period.
As well as his own paintings, the exhibition attempts to show his legacy through portraits by artists from the 18th century to today, including Sir Joshua Reynolds and John Singer Sargent.
• Van Dyck and Britain is at Tate Britain until May 17. wwww.tickets.tate.org.uk

JAMIE WELHAM

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