Book Launch: Van Dyck and the Making of English Portraiture by Adam Eaker

Van Dyck and the Making of English Portraiture (Paul Mellon Centre, Yale University Press) explores how the painter Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) transformed the professional identities available to English artists. By making his portrait sittings into a form of courtly spectacle, Van Dyck inspired poets and playwrights at the same time that he offended guardians of traditional hierarchies. A self-consciously Van Dyckian lineage of artists, many of them women, extends from his lifetime to the end of the eighteenth century and beyond.

There will be short responses from several art historians specializing in the history of portraiture and English and Dutch painting, followed by a Q&A and a drinks reception supported by the Paul Mellon Centre and the Past Imperfect Seminar in UCL's History of Art Department.

Programme:

Introduction: Allison Stielau (UCL, History of Art)

Responses: Esther Chadwick (Courtauld Institute of Art), Karen Hearn (UCL, English), Joanna Woodall (Courtauld Institute of Art)

At the reception, there will be an opportunity to purchase copies of Dr Eaker's book at a reduced price.