Portrait of Lord Thomas Howard, After Anthony van Dyck, 19th Century Dutch Oil on Panel, Framed

Portrait of Lord Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel

This small oil on panel depicts a man in three-quarter view, wearing a white lace ruff collar and dark clothing. The sitter is Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, one of the most important English art collectors of the early 17th century. The composition follows Anthony van Dyck's well-known portrait of Howard, with the figure set against a dark background that concentrates attention on the face and collar. The brushwork is firm and controlled, with visible attention to the texture of the lace and the modeling of the face. The warm flesh tones are set off by the deep blacks of the costume and the cool whites of the ruff.

Van Dyck Copies and the Dutch Old Master Tradition

Copying the works of celebrated painters was a central practice in European art training from the Renaissance through the 19th century. Anthony van Dyck, court painter to Charles I of England and one of the greatest portraitists of the Baroque era, was among the most copied artists in the Western canon. His portraits of English aristocrats, including several of Thomas Howard, became reference works studied and reproduced by generations of painters across Europe. In the Netherlands, where Van Dyck had trained under Rubens and first established his reputation, the tradition of copying his portraits remained active well into the 1800s, both as studio exercises and as commissions for collectors who valued the compositions.