New Van Dyck for the Bowes Museum
November 11 2015
Pictures: Bowes Museum
I'm very pleased to report that the Bowes Museum in County Durham has acquired an important portrait by Van Dyck of Olivia Porter, the wife of Van Dyck's friend, Endymion Porter. The picture has been allocated through the government's Acceptance in Lieu programme, and comes from the Duke of Northumberland's collection. It hung most recently at the Duke's house just outside London, Syon House. The tax settled was £2.8m, though I believe the picture was valued at a higher figure.
The portrait will join another of Olivia by Van Dyck at the Bowes Museum (below), which (regular readers may recall) was discovered by me some years ago. Sorry to brag; but I'm glad that both pictures will now be shown together in such a wonderful museum. The pictures are obviously related, for though the direction of the gaze and the costume are different, the basic drawing of the head is the same.
More here.
