drawing

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Object Type
Museum number: 1874,0808.22
Description: Studies of a horse, for the portrait painting of Charles I on horseback with M St Antoine; with separate study of one of the forelegs at right. c.1633 Black chalk, heightened with white, on three sheets of blue paper overlaid Verso: Head and neck of a horse almost to front Black chalk on blue paper
Producer name
School/style: Flemish; British
Production date: 1633 (circa)
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 430 millimetres; Width: 370 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: Study for the 1633 painting in the Royal Collection, now at Windsor. Literature: M. Jaffé, 'Review of Van Dyck', in Burlington Magazine, LXXXIII, 1991, p.343, no.68; C. White and L. Stainton, 'Drawings in England from Hilliard to Hogarth', 1987, pp.89-90, no.51, fig.51; C. Brown, 'The Drawings of Anthony van Dyck', exhib.cat. The Pierpont Morgan Library (New York) and Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth), New York, 1991, cat.68; G. Raatschen, 'Van Dyck's Charles I on Horseback with M. de St Antoine', in Hans Vlieghe (ed.), "Van Dyck 1599-1999: conjectures and refutations", Turnhout, 2001, p.144, repr. fig.5. Stainton & White 1987 Drawn on three overlapping sheets of paper, the horse is shown with the back legs shortened, probably in order to accommodate them on the sheet. A separate study of the foreleg has been included on the right. (Another study of the foreleg (Vey 209) is also in the British Museum.) The position of the rider is only suggested. Although the artist repeated the pose in the equestrian portrait of the 'Marquis of Moncada', in the Louvre, painted in Brussels in 1634-5, this study was almost certainly made in connection with the equestrian portrait of 'Charles I with M. de St Antoine', in the collection of H.M. The Queen, executed in 1633 for the Gallery at St James's Palace. In addition to the two studies of the horse, the artist made a rapid sketch, unique in his English oeuvre, of the whole composition, which is also in the British Museum (Vey 207). The pose of the horse recurs in the portrait of 'Philip IV', in the Galleria Balbi, Genoa ('Mostra della Pittura del Seicento e Settecento in Liguria', exh. cat., Palazzo Reale, Genoa, 1947, no. 8). The arrangement of horse and rider advancing towards the spectator derives from the type of equestrian portrait first established by Rubens in his portrait of the 'Duke of Lerma' (Prado, Madrid), painted in 1603. The painting would have been seen by Charles on his visit to Spain in 1623 and may have provided the source of inspiration.
Bibliographic references: Hind 1915-31 / Catalogue of Dutch and Flemish Drawings preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (47); Binyon 1898-1907 / Catalogue of drawings by British artists, and artists of foreign origin working in Great Britain (31); Stainton & White 1987 / Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth (51); Curtis & Tallis 2012 / The Horse from Arabia to Ascot (201)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 1934 BM, Exhibition of English Art, no.271 1987 Jun-Aug, BM, 'Hilliard to Hogarth' 1987 Sep-Nov, New Haven, 'Hilliard to Hogarth' 1991 Feb-Apr, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 'van Dyck', no. 68 1991 June-Aug, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 'van Dyck', no. 68 2009 Feb-May, London, Tate Britain, Van Dyck and Britain 2012 24 May - 30 Sep, London, BM, 'The horse: from Arabia to Royal Ascot'
Subjects: mammal; equestrian
Associated names
Acquisition name
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1874
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1874,0808.22
Conservation: Treatment: 03 Aug 1984; Treatment: 06 Mar 2012; Treatment: 28 Jan 1991

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