Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, Antwerp 1599–1641 London)
Oil on wood
41 3/4 x 28 5/8 in. (106 x 72.7 cm)
Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889
Not on view
This impressive portrait, painted about 1618 when the artist was eighteen or nineteen years old, is very close in style to contemporary and slightly earlier portraits by Rubens, for whom Van Dyck was working at the time. In its insistence on volume and textures, the close attention to costume detail, and the passive pose and expression, the painting also adheres to an older Netherlandish tradition, as seen in portraits by Anthonis Mor (ca. 1516/19-ca. 1575/76).
?Sir Paul Methuen, London (until d. 1757); his cousin, Paul Methuen, Corsham Court, Chippenham, Wiltshire (1757–d. 1795); his son, Paul Cobb Methuen, Corsham Court (1795–d. 1816; cat., 1806, p. 54, no. 160); his son, Paul Methuen, 1st Baron Methuen of Corsham, Corsham Court (1816–d. 1849); Frederick Henry Paul Methuen, 2nd Baron Methuen, Corsham Court (1849–86); Henry G. Marquand, New York (1886–89)
Wilhelm [von] Bode. Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen. Leipzig, 1906, p. 267.
Emil Schaeffer. Van Dyck, des Meisters Gemälde. 1st ed. Stuttgart, 1909, ill. p. 137 [2nd ed. by Gustav Glück, 1931, ill. p. 83], as an early Van Dyck.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. "Frühwerke des Anton van Dyck in Amerika." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, n.s., 21, no. 9 (1910), pp. 226–27, describes the style.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. The Art of the Low Countries. English ed. Garden City, N.Y., 1914, p. 238, as an early Van Dyck.
Wilhelm von Bode. Die Meister der holländischen und vlämischen Malerschulen. 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1919, p. 350 [1st English ed., "Great Masters of Dutch and Flemish Painting," New York, 1909, pp. 310–11 n. 1], as by Van Dyck.
Heinrich Rosenbaum. "Der junge Van Dyck." PhD diss., location unknown, Munich, 1928, pp. 17–18, 24 [see Ref. Liedtke 1984], dates it 1618, compares the pendant portraits in Liechtenstein, and describes the style with reference to Valentiner's comments.
Wilhelm R. Valentiner. A Loan Exhibition of Fifty Paintings by Van Dyck. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1929, unpaginated, no. 8, ill.
Walter Heil. "Die Van Dyck-Ausstellung in Detroit." Pantheon 4 (July–December 1929), p. 302, as one of Van Dyck's early portraits in the style of Rubens.
Gustav Glück. Van Dyck, des Meisters Gemälde. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1909]. Stuttgart, 1931, ill. p. 83 [1st ed. by Emil Schaeffer, 1909, ill. p. 137].
Erik Larsen. L'opera completa di Van Dyck. Milan, 1980, vol. 1, p. 91, no. 96, ill., notes Rubens's influence and dates it about 1616–18.
Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 48–50; vol. 2, pl. 22, as painted by Van Dyck in Antwerp in about 1618.
Walter A. Liedtke. "Anthony van Dyck." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 42 (Winter 1984/85), pp. 10, 13, 15, 20, 24, figs. 8–9 (color, overall and detail).
Walter A. Liedtke. "Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum—II: Van Dyck, Jordaens, Brouwer, and Others." Tableau 6 (February 15, 1984), pp. 29, 31.
John Pope-Hennessy. "Roger Fry and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on his Eightieth Birthday. Ed. Edward Chaney and Neil Ritchie. London, 1984, p. 231.
Erik Larsen. The Paintings of Anthony van Dyck. Freren, Germany, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 165, 393 n. 103, fig. 85; vol. 2, p. 14, no. 13.
Susan J. Barnes inAnthony van Dyck. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1990, p. 87, under nos. 4 and 5, as one of the portraits in a group that can be dated 1618.
Rüdiger Klessmann. Die flämischen Gemälde des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Braunschweig, 2003, p. 30, under no. 86.
Stijn Alsteens in Stijn Alsteens and Adam Eaker. Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2016, p. 8, 33 n. 37, fig. 10 (color).
The cradled panel, made up of three boards joined vertically, is in fairly good condition. It has been considerably retouched in the background, at left.
Although attributed to Rubens until the late 19th century, this portrait has been recognized almost unanimously as a Van Dyck, dating from about the time that he served as Rubens's assistant. The pictures closest to it in composition, execution, and date are the pendant portraits of 1618 of a man and wife and another Portrait of a Man, all in the Liechtenstein collection, Vaduz. A comparison of these portraits and the Museum's picture suggests that the Portrait of a Man in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, still assigned to Rubens, is also by the young Van Dyck.