Portrait of François Langlois called Chartres or Ciartres

François Langlois came from Chartres and made his living from prints, engraving, publishing and selling them, and he did business under the name Ciartres, after his home town. He and van Dyck got to know each other in Italy in the 1620s, and in the early 1630s the painter made this portrait of his friend. Langlois is dressed up as a savoyard, one of the wandering shepherd musicians from Savoy, in a broad cocked hat and a red coat, with a musette under his arm, the small bagpipe that had become fashionable at court. His face is weather-beaten and at ease, and at the bottom of the canvas a dog lifts its head towards him. The painting belongs jointly to the National Gallery and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham, which bought it together in 1997.