Out of proportion

Van Dyck and Britain
Tate Britain, until 17 May

Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) was born in Antwerp and apprenticed at the early age of ten to Hendrik van Balen before working as an assistant to Rubens. He first came to London in 1620 (through the good offices of that percipient connoisseur the Earl of Arundel) and entered royal service, though he soon left to study in Italy and set up studio on his own, back in Antwerp. He returned to England in 1632 and remained here until he died, worn out, at the age of 42. He served the court of Charles I, painting the king memorably on horseback, shown here in Room 2 with the marvellous ‘Cupid and Psyche’, which demonstrates what he could do when not painting portraits. Here, too, is the splendid ‘James Stuart, 4th Duke of Lennox’ with his adoring greyhound, an idea pinched from Titian but exquisitely recycled.

In Room 3, the visitor is greeted by the remarkable double portrait of Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard, full of dash and bounce but both doomed for an early grave in the Civil War. To the right is the fair Frances, Lady Buckhurst, while to the left is William Feilding in striped pink pyjamas, indicative of his travels in India and Persia. At the end is that old sinner Archbishop Laud looking uncomfortable, as well he might. Here is the heartland of van Dyck’s constituency, further enhanced by the great ‘Self-Portrait with Endymion Porter’ in Room 4. There are other first-rate things, such as ‘Thomas Killigrew and another Gentleman’, ‘Anne Kirke’ and ‘Portrait of Sir William Killigrew’, but too many paintings by contemporaries. I preferred the room of drawings, with two of the best exhibits in the whole show: ‘A Study of Trees’ (from the British Museum) and ‘A Hilly Landscape with Trees and a Distant Tower’ (from Chatsworth). What a landscape painter van Dyck would have made...

Van Dyck had a huge and crucial influence on Reynolds, Gainsborough and Sargent, which does not mean that a few unexceptional examples of their work in the last room of the show will add a great deal to our enjoyment or understanding. In fact, this whole exhibition acts rather as a break to van Dyck’s amazing fluency, a hindrance to seeing his achievement clear. A smaller, more focused show would have served him better.