Van Dyck and Britain

Examining Anthony Van Dyck’s reputation in France from his death in 1641 to the opening of the Musée du Louvre in 1793, this paper charts the public reception of his work and his influence on later generations of French painters.

Van Dyck first came to England in 1620, when the Surrey-based Mortlake Manufactory began making tapestries. Simon Turner considers whether Van Dyck came to England as a potential designer of prestigious tapestries, examining an oil sketch for an unrealised tapestry series celebrating the Order of the Garter in the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

This paper discusses the painting of the courtier and writer Sir William Killigrew and the companion portrait of his wife Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew, both painted in 1638, by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641). The pair were acquired by Tate in 2002 and 2003 from two entirely different sources.