Portrait de James Stuart, duc de Lennox et Richmond

Van Dyck came to London in 1632 as Charles I's court painter, and he all but invented how the English aristocracy of these years wanted to be seen, tall, easy, faintly aloof. James Stuart, Duke of Lennox and Richmond, was a close friend of the king, and around 1634 Van Dyck showed him at full height in shimmering satin, the star and sash of the Order of the Garter across his chest, an honour he had just received. A large greyhound leans its head against his hip. The dog wears a pearl-studded collar and carries a story, that it once saved the young duke's life on a boar hunt. Van Dyck would paint him three times in all.