The National Gallery will present for the first time the opportunity to see all of Jan van Eyck’s portraits together.
Jan van Eyck Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) 1433 oil on wood
© The National Gallery, London
On display from the 21st November until 11th April, Van Eyck: The Portraits will bring together all nine of the artist’s known painted portraits, making up half of his surviving works worldwide.
Bringing together works from across Europe, the exhibition will introduce the men and women he spent his life around. From craftsmen, merchants and the artist’s relatives, this will be a celebration of ordinary people.
The nine painted portraits will be joined by the exceptional loan of van Eyck’s only surviving drawing, the ‘Portrait of an Elderly Man’ (about 1438, silverpoint and goldpoint on prepared paper, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden). It will be reunited for only the second time ever with the painting it inspired: van Eyck’s ‘Portrait of an Elderly Man (A Scholar?)’ (1438(?), oil on wood, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery).
Three other drawings will be included in the exhibition. ‘The Portrait of a Young Woman’ (about 1435–40, the British Museum) by the artist’s close contemporary Rogier van der Weyden was probably made in response to van Eyck’s work. Two further drawings, made by artists working in van Eyck’s circle or following in the traditions he established, will show the enduring influence he had on the conception and creation of portraits and will allow visitors to compare the technical skills of some of the artists working at the time.
Among other reunions will see the Gallery’s own popular and enigmatic Arnolfini Portrait (1434), the most visited painting page on its website, displayed for the first time ever with a panel showing the same sitter, the ‘Portrait of a Man (Giovanni Arnolfini?)’ (about 1435–38, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).
Emma Capron, Curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings at the National Gallery, says: “Some stories do not have a beginning. Portraiture is one of them. It bursts onto the scene fully formed in the 1430s under the brush of Jan van Eyck. None of the stylised likenesses that preceded his work would pass as a portrait today: you would not recognise their sitters if you walked by them on the street. This changes with van Eyck. Pushing the possibilities of oil painting to convey a convincing illusion of reality, suddenly we are faced with individuals pulsating with life, every single detail of their appearance captured, sitters who look back at us and who speak to us through elaborate and multilingual inscriptions.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/van-eyck-the-portraits