Charles I at the Hunt
Charles I at the Hunt, also known under its French title Le Roi à la chasse, is an oil-on-canvas portrait of
Van Dyck gives his naturalistic style full expression: "Charles is given a totally natural look of instinctive sovereignty, in a deliberately informal setting where he strolls so negligently that that he seems at first glance nature's gentleman rather than England's King".[2] The 105 centimetres (41 in) by 76 centimetres (30 in) painting depicts Charles in lighter colours to the left of the painting, standing against the darker ground and the shadowed servants and horse under a tree to the right; his dark hat prevents his face from appearing washed out by the sky.
Charles is dismounted, and stands as if surveying his domain and the sea beyond (perhaps the
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Van Dyck's Charles I at the Hunt, Smarthistory |
Charles is dressed as an aristocratic gentleman in a wide-brimmed
In his three years as England's Principal Painter in Ordinary, van Dyck had already made two other equestrian portraits of Charles in armour: Charles I with M. de St Antoine, depicting Charles accompanied by his riding master, Pierre Antoine Bourdon, Seigneur de St Antoine; and Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, depicting Charles as a heroic philosopher king, contemplatively surveying his domain.
Charles paid van Dyck £100 for the painting in 1638 – although the artist originally requested £200 – but it is not mentioned in the inventory of his collections after his
See also
References
- ^ Charles at the Hunt, Louvre Museum
- ^ Painting at Court, Michael Levey, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971, p. 128
Further reading
- Charles I: The Personal Monarch, Charles Carlton, p. 145
- The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Jacobean and Caroline, Roy C. Strong, p. 177
- Charles I: A Political Life, Richard Cust, p. 159
- The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-painting, 1420–1670, Norbert Schneider, pp. 128–130
- "Anthony van Dyck’s Equestrian Portraits of Charles I", Alena M. Buis, Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History, Issue #1, June 2005