Self-Portrait

By the time he painted this self-portrait, around 1632, van Dyck had portrayed himself more often than almost any painter of his generation, and always with the same intent. He shows himself as an elegant gentleman rather than a craftsman at work, which is exactly how he wanted to be seen. He had just been knighted by Charles I of England and made principal painter to the king, and he carried himself accordingly. The picture later joined the Uffizi's collection of artists' self-portraits, a gallery begun in the 16th century where painters are represented by their own hands. Van Dyck had less than a decade left when he made it. He died in London in 1641, aged 42.