LONDON.- Anthony van Dyck’s Andalusian Horse – his first grand-scale depiction of a lone horse – has an additional element of rarity and significance: his only surviving landscape in oil can be found hidden on the reverse of the original canvas. Executed as a fluid study, it was only discovered when the later ‘relining canvas’ was removed during restoration, following the picture’s sale in 2000. This ‘two-sided’ work is a leading highlight of Christie’s Old Masters Part I Sale on 3 December, during Classic Week London (estimate: £2,000,000 – 3,000,000). The painting is on view at Christie’s Paris from 14 to 21 November, ahead of the pre-sale exhibition in London from 29 November to 3 December.

Clementine Sinclair, Christie’s Head of London Old Master Paintings: “We are delighted that this powerful work by one of the greatest artist of the Northern Baroque is returning to Christie’s for sale after over 20 years with the added significance and excitement of van Dyck’s only surviving landscape in oil having been revealed on the reverse of the original canvas in the interim.”

CONTEXT

An Andalusian Horse was painted shortly before van Dyck left Antwerp for Italy in the autumn of 1621. It was executed in preparation for the artist’s equestrian portrait of Emperor Charles V, circa 1621, now in the Uffizi, Florence, which is the earliest surviving work in a genre that hastened the artist’s reputation as one of the most sought-after portraitists in Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century.

TECHNIQUE

This striking depiction of a stallion provides a thrilling demonstration of the young van Dyck’s virtuoso handling of paint and bravura technique. This is equally true of the landscape study on the unprimed reverse.

A forceful image of equine power the picture is a masterful performance in economy; using the prepared grey ground to superb effect, van Dyck has employed rapidly brushed strokes of dark brown paint to articulate the outline before lavishly applying highlights in lead white to capture the modelling and head of the horse. This expressive use of paint is typical of the artist’s work during his formative years in Antwerp when his works are characterised by a richness and variety of texture that are in striking contrast to the restrained, courtly style of his final years in England. Van Dyck’s love of horses and his delight in painting them is evident from the artist’s work during his early years in Antwerp. In André Félibien’s 1685 biography of the artist, he recounts how Rubens presented van Dyck with one of the most beautiful horses from his stable before his most gifted pupil departed for Italy.

LANDSCAPES AND VAN DYCK’S LOVE OF THE NATURAL WORLD

Van Dyck’s landscape study, on the reverse of the canvas, shows a steep tree-covered bank on the left, sloping down to a lake where a dog can be seen drinking. While it is known that van Dyck painted pure landscapes – five are listed in Antwerp collections in the seventeenth century – this is the only surviving oil in the genre from his entire career. It has been connected by scholars to the background in his Portrait of a father and son, possibly Joannes Woverius with his son, circa 1620, in the Louvre, Paris. The artist’s delight in studying nature is evident in the many portraits and subject pictures with landscape backdrops or settings, but it is arguably in the group of surviving drawings where his veneration of the natural world is most eloquently expressed.

PROVENANCE

An Andalusian Horse was acquired by the artist and revered collector Thomas Gambier Parry in 1859, before Sir Charles Eastlake had time to secure it for the National Gallery. Gambier Parry assembled a remarkable collection of Italian renaissance pictures for Highnam Court, near Gloucester, that included important works by Bernardo Daddi, Lorenzo Monaco, Fra Angelico, Pesellino and Mariotto Albertinelli. His collection survives substantially intact at the Courtauld Institute. The van Dyck was, it proves, the outstanding northern picture in the collection.