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A man with pale skin, wearing a gold-embroidered amber-yellow jacket and tomato-red pants, stands in front of a rocky outcropping with a distant view beyond in this vertical portrait painting. At the center of the composition and taking up most of it, the man stands with his body facing us, but he turns his head slightly to our left and looks off in that direction with slate-blue eyes under curving brows. His smooth cheeks are lightly flushed in his oval face. His full pink lips are closed and are framed by a mustache and small, pointed goatee under his lower lip. His wavy brown hair falls in bangs across his forehead and down to his shoulders. One longer lock has been braided and tied with a yellow and red bow, which rests on the front of his left shoulder, to our right. A wide, lace collar extends from his neck to drape over his shoulders, overlapping a piece of metal armor around the neck, called a gorget. His yellow jacket, a doublet, is embroidered with gold along the hems and where it hangs open down the front to show a white shirt beneath. The silver sleeve we can see is cut with a long slit along the forearm to also show the white linen beneath, and both cuffs have layers of lace at the wrists. A crimson-red coat or cape hangs over his left arm, on our right. His red pants are covered all over with gold stitching above ivory-white, calf-high boots. He holds a wide-brimmed, black hat adorned with plumes of red, white, and marigold-orange feathers in his right hand, on our left. An armored breastplate rests at his feet. He stands on a dirt ground with a tall boulder immediately behind him to our right. The landscape in the distance to our left has a sky filled with steel-gray clouds above trees and hills.

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Henri II de Lorraine, c. 1634

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 204.6 x 123.8 cm (80 9/16 x 48 3/4 in.)

framed: 247.7 x 165.7 cm (97 1/2 x 65 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney

Accession Number

1947.14.1

Artists / Makers

Sir Anthony van Dyck (artist) Flemish, 1599 - 1641

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

In March 1634 Anthony van Dyck ceased his duties as court artist to King Charles I of England and returned to the southern Netherlands. During the next nine months he painted a number of portraits of exiled French aristocrats who had relocated to Brussels following the exile of the queen mother of France, Maria de' Medici, whom they supported politically. Among those he portrayed at the queen mother's court was Henri II de Lorraine.

Son of Charles de Lorraine, 4th duc de Guise, and Henriette-Catherine, duchesse de Joyeuse, Henri assumed the title of archbishop of Rheims in 1629 at age fifteen, a prerogative of his wealthy Catholic family. However, his supposedly oft repeated guide for living — "There are only two things in life: war and women, or women and war, the order does not matter, as long as both are present" — conflicted with the religious conviction expected of him as archbishop, and he left Rheims in the early 1630s to join the imperial forces in Germany. He presumably moved to Brussels after the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634, perhaps in the retenue of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, who, after his victory in that battle, became the new governor of the southern Netherlands.

Van Dyck pictures Henri full-length, his armor, symbolic of his recent military involvement, discarded at his feet. Reflecting the height of fashion, Henri wears his hair long, with a lovelock that falls gracefully over his broad lace collar adorned with a multicolored bow. Dressed in a resplendent tan doublet split at the sleeves to reveal a billowing white shirt, sporting large boots and vibrant red breeches trimmed with gold and festooned with decorative ribbons, Henri exudes confidence but very little seriousness, which may in fact reflect his lack of moral character.

Provenance

Presumably the sitter, Henri II de Lorraine [1614-1664, became 5th duc de Guise in 1640], Paris. François Roger de Gaignières [1642-1715], by 1711; (his estate sale, Paris, 29 July - 6 August 1717, no. 22 [505 livres]).[1] Probably Sir Edward Grey, Viscount Grey of Fallodon [1862-1933]; by inheritance to the Misses Bright, Stocks.[2] Arthur Kay [c. 1862-1939], Esq., Glasgow, by 1893.[3] (H.O. Miethke, Vienna); Jacob Herzog, Vienna, by 1895 until at least 1899;[4](William Schaus, New York);[5] purchased 1900/1901 by William Collins Whitney [1841-1904], New York;[6] by inheritance to his son, Harry Payne Whitney [1872-1930], New York; by inheritance to his widow, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney [1875-1942], New York; by inheritance to their son, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney [1899-1992], New York; gift 1947 to NGA.

[1] For the identification of the sitter as Henri II de Lorraine, and for an argument that Gaignières acquired the painting directly from the sitter's family, see three articles by Francis M. Kelly: "A Van Dyck from the 'Cabinet de Gaignières' in the Whitney Collection, New York, Apollo 22 (August 1935): 91-94; "Un Van Dyck du Cabinet de Gaignières en Amérique," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 13 (January 1935): 59-61; Flotsam from the Cabinet de Gaignières," Connoisseur 107 (February 1941): 3-7. The painting is listed as no. 22 in a 1711 inventory of Gaignières' collection, which was ordered by Louis XIV; the inventory was first published by Charles de Grandmaison, "Gaignières. Ses Correspondants et ses collections de portraits," Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, 1890-1892, 67 and appendice. After Gaignières' death in March 1715, the collection was inventoried and organized by Pierre de Clairambault, who was genealogist of the king's Orders of Chivalry, and at whose house in the Place des Victoires the 1717 sale was held. The painting is described in the 1717 sale catalogue as "Le duc de Guise de son haut, original de Vandeck." The inventory and record of the sale are in the Clairambault collection at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

[2] Theodoor von Frimmel, "Van Dyck's William Villiers in Wein," Kunstchronik 6 (16 May 1895): 385 note 1, states: "Von anderer Seite habe ich erfahren, dass dieses Bild mit vielen anderen aus der Sammlung Sir Edward Grey's durch Erbschaft an Misses Bright of the Stocks [sic] gekommen war." (I have learned from other sources that this painting, with many others from Sir Edward Grey's collection, came to the Misses Bright of the Stocks by inheritance.) This information has taken various forms throughout the literature on this painting; for instance, "the family of Lord Grey," "Lady Grey," "Sammlung der Grey," "Earl de Grey," "Count Gray," "Mrs. Bright of Stokes Park," "R. Bright, Stocks Hall, Herts.," and "Mrs. R. Bright." However, no sales or exhibition records have appeared to confirm these statements. The International Studio article announcing the sale of the painting to William Collins Whitney says the portrait had been in the possession of the Buckingham family and then sold to "Lady Grey" ("American Studio Talk," International Studio 12, no. 48 [February 1901]: xx, repro. xxi).

[3] The painting was lent by Kay to the 1893 Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. That same year he sold some of his collection through Martin and Camentron in Paris.

[4] Von Frimmel 1895: 386, provides the names of Miethke and Herzog, and Herzog lent the painting to the 1899 Van Dyck exhibition in Antwerp.

[5] The International Studio article (see note 2) provides Schaus' name, although it was actually Hermann Schaus, William Schaus' nephew, who sold the painting to Whitney. Hermann Schaus took over his uncle's business in 1886, but continued to use the original name even after his uncle's death in 1895. Correspondence from a descendant of Hermann Schaus' daughter (dated 20 November 1982, in NGA curatorial files) mentions the family story of a special search and bet with Stanford White that Hermann could not find a Van Dyck for the Whitney collection. One of Herman Schaus' obituaries (American Art News [11 February 1911]: 4) says the painting was imported from the 1899 exhibition.

[6] Whitney's acquisition of the painting was announced in the International Studio article (see note 2).

Associated Names

Bright, Miss
Gaignières, François Roger de
Grey, Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Edward, Sir
Henri II de Lorraine, 5th duc de, Guise
Herzog, Jacob
Kay, Esq., Arthur
Miethke, H.O.
Sale, Paris
Schaus, William
Whitney, Cornelius Vanderbilt
Whitney, Gertrude Vanderbilt
Whitney, Harry Payne
Whitney, William Collins

Exhibition History

1893: Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1893, no. 130, as Portrait of William Villiers, Viscount Grandison.

1899: Van Dyck Tentoonstelling ter gelegenheid der 300e verjaring der beboorte van den Meester, Museum van Schoone Kunsten, Antwerp, 1899, no. 82.

1929: Eighth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters. Paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1929, no. 40, repro., as William Villiers--Viscount Grandison.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 107, repro., as William Villiers, Viscount Grandison.

2002: Loan to display with permanent collection, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, 2002-2003.

Bibliography

1935: Kelly, Francis M. "A Van Dyck from the Cabinet de Gaignières in the Whitney Collection, New York." Apollo 22 (August 1935): 91-94.

1950: "Old Masters in America: Important Gifts to the National Gallery, Washington" The Illustrated London News (September 16, 1950): 449, repro.

1962: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 84, color repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 311, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 47.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:278, color repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 122, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 264, no. 340, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 147, repro.

2004: Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: III.101

2005: Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 90-95, color repro.

2020: Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 137-138.