Lady Elizabeth Thimbelby et sa sœur

Anthony van Dyck came to London in the 1630s as court painter to Charles I, and he brought a fashion the English had barely seen: the double portrait of two sisters or friends, posed together like a duet. These two were daughters of Viscount Savage. One of them, Elizabeth, had lately married, and the picture seems to mark it. She wears a warm saffron gown, a colour then tied to brides in the ancient world, while a small winged Cupid leans in to offer her roses. Van Dyck died in London in the winter of 1641, worn out and only 42. The next year the king who had employed him went to war with his own Parliament.