Anthony van Dyck
In the context of the artistic career of Anthony van Dyck, it is significant that one of his earliest works is a self-portrait. The fourteen- or fifteen-year-old who had probably just finished his painting apprenticeship but still had four more years ahead of him before he would obtain the title of Master from The Guild of St. Luke, already appears here with a bravado that has nothing boyish about it but instead shows the same confidence in his own abilities that would characterize his later self-portraits from 1624 onward.
The use of thick impasto for the light areas of the forehead and the eyes, the assured brushstrokes of the depiction of the reddish, tousled hair may not yet show the refinement of his later work, which is influenced by Titian, but already—especially in the single, swift brushstroke of the edge of the collar—the painting reveals an astonishing confidence.
This self-portrait stands at the beginning of an impressive series of studies of himself by van Dyck, which from 1620 were executed in ever quicker succession: van Dyck as a polyglot traveller who visited Italy like Rubens and had a transformative encounter with the art of Titian; then as primus inter pares in a collection of portraits of famous men of his time in which he portrays himself making an etching of himself; and as courtier in the self-portrait with sunflower, an allegory of van Dyck’s unwavering loyalty to King Charles I. He served as “The principalle paynter in ordinary to their majesties,” as court painter in the service of the English royal couple Charles I and Henrietta Maria, from 1632 until his early death.
The self-portrait of 1613/1614 already contains many of the important characteristics of van Dyck’s personality as well as some of his stylistic traits. Was van Dyck a child prodigy? The answer to this question must surely be in the affirmative.
We present today's painting thanks to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. :)