Portrait of Lady d Aubigny

Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny (1638) is a late-career oil painting by the Flemish Baroque master Anthony van Dyck, notable for its unusually wide horizontal format—128.5 × 178 cm—which is exceptional for a single-figure aristocratic portrait of the period. The work, also recorded as Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny and Countess Portland, is held in the collection of the Pushkin Museum and is documented in both the museum's primary record and the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) ^[3][4][5].

Artist: Anthony van Dyck, court painter to Charles I

Van Dyck (1599–1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after earlier success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy ^[1]. The seventh child of a wealthy Antwerp silk merchant, he was painting independently by his late teens and became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1617, having worked in the studio of Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work ^[1]. After periods in London (1621) and Italy (until 1627, mostly in Genoa), and five years in Flanders where he served as court painter to the Archduchess Isabella, van Dyck returned to London in 1632 at the request of Charles I as the main court painter ^[1]. The 1638 date of this portrait places it in the final phase of his English career, when he was at the height of his success as the dominant portraitist of the Caroline court ^[1].

Provenance: the Pushkin Museum record

The painting's documented history is anchored by two primary institutional records: the Pushkin Museum's own catalogue entry and the RKD's image archive ^[4][5]. The work entered the Pushkin Museum's collection of European and American art, where it is inventoried under the museum's European holdings (zh_654) ^[4]. The RKD record (image 102716) provides independent documentation of the painting's attribution and identity ^[5].

Date	Event
1638	Painting executed by van Dyck [3]
Modern era	Documented in Pushkin Museum collection, Moscow [3][4]
Modern era	Recorded in RKD image archive (no. 102716) [5]

Title and identity: Lady d'Aubigny and Countess Portland

The painting bears a dual title in the documentary record: Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny and Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny and Countess Portland ^[3][4][5]. The alternative title suggests the sitter may have held both titles—Lady d'Aubigny and Countess of Portland—either sequentially or simultaneously, reflecting the complex aristocratic nomenclature of the English peerage in the 1630s ^[3]. The dual designation is recorded consistently across the Wikidata entry, the Pushkin Museum record, and the RKD archive ^[3][4][5].

Format: the unusual horizontal composition

At 128.5 × 178 cm, the painting is significantly wider than it is tall—a horizontal proportion that departs from the vertical format typical of van Dyck's single-figure court portraits ^[3]. This unusual aspect ratio suggests the work may have been conceived for a specific architectural setting, such as a chimneypiece or overdoor, where a wide format would be required. The dimensions are recorded identically in the Wikidata entry and the Pushkin Museum's catalogue ^[3][4].

Medium and technique

The work is executed in oil on canvas, the medium van Dyck used throughout his mature career ^[3]. His oil technique, refined during his years in Rubens's Antwerp studio and his subsequent Italian sojourn, is characterized by fluent brushwork and the ability to render luxurious fabrics and flesh tones with equal facility ^[1]. The horizontal format would have required careful compositional planning to balance the figure within the extended field ^[3].

Related works and context

Van Dyck's English period, to which this portrait belongs, produced the series of aristocratic and royal portraits that defined the visual image of the Caroline court ^[1]. His Iconography series of portrait etchings, completed in the late 1620s, had already established his reputation as the preeminent portraitist of European elites ^[1]. The 1638 date places this work alongside the artist's late masterpieces, executed in the years before his death in 1641 ^[1].

Frequently asked questions

When was Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny painted?

The painting is dated 1638, according to the Wikidata record and the Pushkin Museum's catalogue entry ^[3][4].

Where is the painting located today?

The work is in the collection of the Pushkin Museum (collection identifier Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), as documented in the museum's primary record ^[3][4].

Why does the painting have two titles?

The documentary record gives both Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny and Portrait of Lady d'Aubigny and Countess Portland, suggesting the sitter held both titles; both forms are recorded in the Wikidata entry and the RKD archive ^[3][5].