About this artwork
This is a preparatory study for Van Dyck’s painted Portrait of Nicholas Lanier (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Lanier was a successful singer, musician and composer, and Master of the King’s Music to Charles I and, after fifteen years in exile, to Charles II. An accomplished painter himself, Lanier assembled one of the first important collections of drawings in Britain. This is one of the earliest studies by Van Dyck in black and white chalk on blue paper, a technique he had encountered in Venice during his Italian period (1621-7) and that is characteristic of studies in his later career.
Updated before 2020
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artist:
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title:Study for the Portrait of Nicholas Lanier (1588 - 1666)
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date created:1628
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materials:Black chalk, heightened with white on blue paper
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measurements:39.40 x 28.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Lady Murray of Henderland Gift 1860 as a memorial of her husband, Lord Murray of Henderland
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accession number:D 1846
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gallery:
Sir Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck
Van Dyck is perhaps most famous for the grand and elegant portraits he painted of the British aristocracy when he was court painter to King Charles I. He trained in Antwerp, and worked in Rubens’s studio as an assistant. His outstanding talents were recognised and encouraged by Rubens, who...