Worth the tripLondon · United Kingdom
All nine Van Eyck portraits, together for the first time
The National Gallery assembles every known painted portrait by Jan van Eyck — half of his surviving output — in one room.
By Museum Compass
This has never happened and may not happen again; the loans alone took years to negotiate. Portraiture as a genre starts here. Worth building a London trip around.
The exhibition
Van Eyck: The Portraits
This exhibition presents all nine of Jan van Eyck's known painted portraits together for the first time in history, representing half of his surviving works. It shows how portraiture as we know it begins with van Eyck, whose meticulous realism captured merchants, craftsmen and family members rather than only aristocracy.
