Autoportrait au tournesol

Van Dyck painted this in 1632, the year he crossed to London and became principal painter to Charles I, who knighted him and set him up in a house at Blackfriars. He turns to face us and draws attention to two things. The heavy gold chain looped over his shoulder was the king's own gift, and it carried a medal with Charles's portrait. The sunflower was still a costly novelty in England, a plant brought from the Americas that turns its head to follow the sun. Painters of the day read that habit as devotion, the courtier turning toward his prince the way the flower turns toward the light. He was 33, and had just found the patron who would keep him busy for the rest of his life.