Karl I. (1600–1649) mit M. de St Antoine

Anthony van Dyck had just become principal painter to Charles I when he made this, the first of the great equestrian portraits of the king, dated 1633. Charles rides out beneath a triumphal arch in gleaming armour, huge and commanding on a pale horse, with his French riding master, Monsieur de St Antoine, holding the helmet below. The scale is deliberate propaganda: Charles was a small, quiet man who believed deeply in the divine right of kings, and van Dyck gave him the towering presence he did not have in life. Sixteen years later that belief helped bring him to the scaffold, and the royal collection was sold off. This canvas was valued at 150 pounds, sold, and only recovered for the crown after the monarchy returned in 1660.