Philip, Lord Wharton

1632

Sir Anthony van Dyck

Artist, Flemish, 1599 - 1641

Shown from about the hips up, a young, pale-skinned man with curly brown hair stands facing and looking at us, wearing a plum-purple coat under a golden yellow cape in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s oval face is angled a little to our left so he looks out from the corners of his gray eyes. His left eyebrow, on our right, is slightly arched. His skin is smooth and his cheeks lightly flushed. He has a long, straight nose, his pink lips are closed, and there is a faintly painted suggestion of a goatee. Wavy bangs fall across his forehead, and he has curly, chin-length hair. He stands with his right hand, on our left, on his hip, and in his other arm, he holds a wooden staff with a pewter-gray, metal, scoop-like hook at the top. White lace trims the high neck of his garment and the cuffs of his sleeves. Light reflecting off the plum-purple coat suggests a soft material, possibly velvet. Crisp reflections on the deep, butter-yellow cape fastened over one shoulder suggest satin. An emerald-green cloth hanging from the top right corner of the painting falls behind the man’s shoulder. Behind the cloth and to our left, a craggy, rocky outcropping opens to a view of a landscape with a green valley and topaz-blue mountains in the distance. Bands of golden light illuminate the cloudy sky above. The work is inscribed with yellow lettering in the lower right corner to read, “Philip Lord Wharton 1632 about ye age of 19.” The artist’s name is painted in the lower left: “P. Sr Ant: vandike.”

Media Options

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In this Arcadian portrait, Anthony van Dyck pictures Philip, 4th Baron Wharton, standing before a shimmering green drapery against a rocky backdrop, while holding a shepherd's houlette in the crook of his arm. His regal pose and his sumptuous attire with its rich golden-yellow, purple, and emerald tones convey both grace and elegance, while his gaze exudes self-confidence.

Eldest son of a staunch Puritan, Wharton succeeded his grandfather, also named Philip, to become the fourth Baron Wharton. After attending Oxford University and traveling abroad with his siblings, Lord Wharton spent part of the summer of 1631 in The Hague at the court of the Prince of Orange, Frederik Hendrik, presumably becoming involved with the Dutch cause, due to his strong Protestant background. In The Hague, Lord Wharton would have met the exiled King and Queen of Bohemia, Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth Stuart, sister of King Charles I, thereby fostering his relationship with the English king. Thanks to this relationship, Wharton became the first Englishman other than the king to commission a portrait from Anthony van Dyck after the Flemish master moved to London in 1632.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 43

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 133 x 106 cm (52 3/8 x 41 3/4 in.)
    framed: 171.8 x 144.1 cm (67 5/8 x 56 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.50

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Philip Wharton, 4th baron Wharton, [1613-1696], Wharton Hall, near Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, or Healaugh, West Riding, Yorkshire, until 1637; after 1637 in Wooburn, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; by inheritance to his son, Thomas Wharton, 5th baron and 1st marquess of Wharton [1648-1716], Winchendon, near Aylesbury; by inheritance to his son, Philip Wharton, 1st and last duke of Wharton [1699-1731], Winchendon, near Aylesbury;[1] purchased 1725 by Sir Robert Walpole, 1st earl of Orford and Prime Minister under George I and George II [1676-1745], Houghton Hall, Norfolk; by inheritance to his son, Robert Walpole, 2nd earl of Orford [1700-1751], Houghton Hall; by inheritance to his son, George Walpole, 3rd earl of Orford [1730-1791], Houghton Hall;[2] acquired with the Walpole collection in 1779, through Count Aleksei Semonovich Musin-Pushkin, Russian ambassador to England, by Catherine II, empress of Russia [1729-1796], for the Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg;[3] purchased March 1930 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] Oliver Millar, "Philip, Lord Wharton, and His Collection of Portraits," The Burlington Magazine 136 (August 1994): 521-522.
[2] The Van Dycks hung in the Yellow Drawing Room on the first floor at Houghton. See Andrew Moore, ed., Houghton Hall: The Prime Minister, the Empress and the Heritage, exh. cat. (Norwich Castle Museum, Norwich, and The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, London), London, 1996: 105-107.
[3] Count Musin-Pushkin purchased the painting for two hundred pounds.
[4] Mellon purchase date and date deeded to Mellon Trust are according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook, donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1899

  • Van Dyck Tentoonstelling ter gelegenheid der 300e verjaring der beboorte van den Meester, Museum van Schoone Kunsten, Antwerp, 1899, no. 85.

1900

  • Exhibition of Works by Van Dyck 1599-1641. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1900, no. 61.

1990

  • Anthony van Dyck, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990-1991, no. 63, color repro.

1996

  • Houghton Hall: The Prime Minister, The Empress and The Heritage, Castle Museum Norwich; Kenwood House, London, 1996-1997, no. 26, repro.

2001

  • The Theatrical Baroque, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2001, no. 16, fig. 4.

2014

  • Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English Country House, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, 2014-2015, not in catalogue..

Bibliography

1909

  • Wrangell, Baron Nicolas. Les Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la Galérie de Tableaux de l'Hermitage Impérial à St-Pétersbourg. London, 1909: repro. 86.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 204, no. 50, pl. XIII.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 40.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 94, color repro.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 70, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 311, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 46.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:280, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 40, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 13.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 118, repro.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 67, pl. 52.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 264, no. 338, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 144, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 91, 92, color repro.

1994

  • Parry, Graham. "Van Dyck and the Caroline Court Poets." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 252, repro. no. 5.

  • Rogers, Malcolm. "Van Dyck's Portrait of Lord George Stuart, Seigneur d'Aubigny, and Some Related Works." Studies in the History of Art 46 (1994): 263, 268-269, 272, repro. no. 10.

1997

  • Toman, Rolf. Die Kunst des Barock : Architektur, Skulptur, Malerei, 1997, p.480, repro.

1998

  • Gibson, Sarah S. “Shepherds/Shepherdesses." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:821, 823.

2004

  • Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven, 2004: IV.237

2005

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 80-83, color repro.

2009

  • Odom, Anne, and Wendy R. Salmond, eds. Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia's Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938. Washington, D.C., 2009: 90, 103 n. 44, 135 n. 62.

2013

  • Semyonova, Natalya, and Nicolas V. Iljine, eds. Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art 1917-1938. New York and London, 2013: 138, 139, 178, repro.

2016

  • Jaques, Susan. The Empress of Art: Catherine the Great and the Transformation of Russia. New York, 2016: 397, color fig.

2020

  • Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 133.

Inscriptions

lower left: P.Sr Ant: vandike; lower right: Philip Lord Wharton / 1632 about ye age / of 19.

Wikidata ID

Q3937649

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