Lord John Stuart and His Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart

Van Dyck painted these two brothers around 1638, when they were still in their teens and dressed at the very top of court fashion, all silk and silver and easy confidence. They were cousins of King Charles the First, and the portrait was made as they set off to travel through Europe. Within a few years that world was gone. Civil war broke out in England, and both young men fought for the king. Lord John died of his wounds after the battle of Cheriton in 1644. His younger brother Bernard was killed the next year at Rowton Heath, near Chester. Van Dyck himself did not see any of it, having died in 1641. The pose still has them leaning on the edge of a journey, one foot raised on a step, looking out as if nothing could touch them.