VAN DYCK DEPARTMENT

Sir Antony van DYCK

(Antwerp 1599 - 1641 London)

      Since 2001, Philippe Barnabé has been committed to intensive archival research and first-hand technical analysis of most of Van Dyck’s extant works in European Museums.

      As a result, the Barnabé Gallery has made multiple discoveries, including two major works executed during the artist’s youth in Antwerp and his trip to Italy. These open the way to new insights into the artist’s oeuvre.

Our documentation on Van Dyck is in constant evolution and currently consists of more than 8900 photographs. 

The complete catalogue raisonné of Van Dyck’s oeuvre edited by Yale University Press in 2003 (Susan J. Barnes, Nora de Poorter, Oliver Millar, Horst Vey) made it possible to appreciate additional dimensions of the artist’s career and including technical aspects of Van Dyck’s work as never before.

      Nonetheless, the reconstitution of the artist's complete work remains unfinished, mainly because of uncertainties concerning his Italian period, his studio processes, and the roleof his students.

The voyage to Italy, which is associated with the artist’s intellectual dynamism at a moment when it was subjected to multiple influences of the most renowned Old Masters such as Titian, Veronese, Reni,Correggio and others, probably inspired many more paintings which remain to be unidentified.

An old Genoese guide indicated the presence of forty-five Van Dyck paintings figuring in private collections! In Genoa, in the absence of any flourishing painting school, the artist embellished palaces with glorious timeless treasures and ceaselessly produced masterpieces.