251 colour and 5 black & white illustrations

In this sumptuously illustrated volume, eminent art historian Sir Christopher White places the portraiture of renowned Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) in context among the work of his contemporaries working in and around the courts of seventeenth-century Europe. Van Dyck’s artistic development is charted through his travels, beginning in his native Antwerp, then to England, Italy, Brussels, the Hague, and back again. Combining historical insights with a discerning appreciation of the work, White brings Van Dyck’s paintings to life, showing how the virtuoso not only admired his artistic predecessors and rivals but refashioned what he learned from them into new kind of portraiture. Beautifully produced and a pleasure to read, this book is an important contribution to the literature on a celebrated painter.

Sir Christopher White is a British art historian and curator specialising in Dutch Golden Age painting. Amongst other roles, he has served as Director of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Keeper of the Ashmolean. He has written extensively on Dutch art, and in 2001 was knighted for services to art history.