Anton Van Dyck, born in Antwerp, Belgium, was the portrait painter at the court of Charles I in England, around 1632. His flattering depictions of the fragile-looking Charles gave the monarch an imposing, powerful appearance, which impressed their subject to the point of making his favorite portraitist a Knight of the Court.
Van Dyck painted only three self-portraits during his stay in England, the last of these just three months before his death at the age of 42, a victim of the plague. The work, including its elaborate sunflower-shaped frame—characteristic of the artist—, is one of the most beautiful and important self-portraits in the history of British art.
In 2009, this painting was sold at auction with a final prize three times over the initial estimate of £8.3 million, breaking the £3.6-million for a Van Dyck work reached years before.
Recently, Van Dyck's last self-portrait was acquired by a collector who plans to move it out of the country. This has prompted a customs order to temporarily stay its export, as it is considered part of Britain's cultural patrimoy.
The Naional Portrait Gallery wants to rescue it for its collection and has set a three-month timeline to raise sufficient funds for its re-acquisition. The gallery has already raised £1.2 million, including a £500,000 contribution frok Art Fund and £700,000 from the institution's own budget. While the remaining £11.3 million needed are raised, the portrait will remain on exhibit at the gallery, and if the campaign is successful it wil be shown both in its London site and other museums and galleries across the country.
"No other artist has achieved such impact in the history of portrait in Britain. He gave the discipline a radical turn, moving away from the rigid, formal approach of the Tudor and Jacob period to develop the fluid pictorial style that remained dominant well into the Twentieth Century", said the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne.