Автопортрет

Anthony van Dyck was barely into his twenties here, and already deciding how the world would see him. He was the son of a prosperous Antwerp cloth merchant, and he paints himself with none of the tools of his trade, no palette, no brushes, dressed instead like a young gentleman of leisure, one soft hand lifted toward his chin. The picture probably dates to the winter of 1620 into 1621, which he spent at the English court, his first taste of the aristocratic world he wanted to belong to. Soon after, he left for Italy, where his fine manners and finer clothes drew both admiration and mockery from other painters. The self-presentation he rehearses in this small canvas would carry him, in the end, to the post of court painter to a king.