“Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture”

Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) was a Flemish artist who is best known for becoming the court painter to Charles I of England. His richly Baroque style of the King and his retinue was especially suited an absolute monarch who believed in his divine right to rule (and who eventually lost his head for it). Van Dyck portraits of Charles in particular captures the man’s elevated view of himself, whether he’s shown with his family, on a hunt or commanding his army. This show, the first major Van Dyck monograph in the U.S. in 20 years, employs  100 works that explore “the efficiency and genius of an artist in action.”