Anthony VAN DYCK
Flemish 1599-641
Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton
c. 1640
oil on canvas (mounted on plywood panel)
223.2 x 131.8 cm
Felton Bequest 1922
1246-3

This is believed to be a posthumous portrait of the Countess Southampton to commemorate her passing in 1641. She is painted as the goddess Fortune who rules the cosmos and whose spirit lives on, triumphant beyond death, indicated by the skull at the sitteršs feet.
Van Dyck was a student of Rubens and he clearly absorbed Ruben's flamboyant style in portraiture. Van Dyck is one of the great painters of fabric, brilliantly capturing texture and finish, particularly of satin and silk.
Van Dyck was very well travelled and frequently went to England where he was a favourite painter at the court of Charles I. He painted members of the Royal Family of England and many of the leading courtiers, including this work of Rachel de Ruvigny, the wife of Thomas Wriothlsey, 4th Earl of Southampton.