National Gallery London
The first ever exhibition of the portraits of the Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck (active 1422–1441), will open at the National Gallery in winter 2026.
Bringing together for the first time, from across Europe, all nine of the artist’s painted portraits, Van Eyck: The Portraits (21 November 2026 – 11 April 2027) will show half of the twenty or so surviving autograph pictures by one of the supreme figures of the Northern Renaissance.
This is an artist who not only changed the genre of portraiture - but also redefined who got to be portrayed. Capturing a moment when access to art widened, the sitters van Eyck depicted were no longer only kings, queens, or aristocrats but affluent merchants, successful craftsmen and the artist’s relatives.
Exceptional reunions will see the Gallery’s own popular Arnolfini Portrait (1434), the most visited painting page on its website, displayed for the first time ever with a panel showing the same sitter, 'Portrait of a Man (Giovanni? Arnolfini)' (c.1440, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin).
Van Eyck’s newly conserved Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) (1433, the National Gallery) will be shown next to the portrait of his enterprising wife Margaret (1439, Groeningemuseum, Bruges), the first known portrait of a woman who was not a member of the aristocracy. For the first time in its history, Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum will allow both its paintings by van Eyck to go on loan at the same time.
Foregrounding new research on the artist’s technique, original frames and cryptic inscriptions, and addressing lingering controversies over his sitters’ identities, the exhibition’s catalogue will be the first monograph ever published on the subject of van Eyck’s portraits – surprising given the vast literature on the artist.
Emma Capron, Curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings at the National Gallery, says: ‘Some stories do not have a beginning. Portraiture is one of them. It bursts onto the scene fully formed in the 1430s under the brush of Jan van Eyck. None of the stylised likenesses that preceded his work would pass as a portrait today: you would not recognise their sitters if you walked by them on the street.'
'This changes with van Eyck. Pushing the possibilities of oil painting to convey a convincing illusion of reality, suddenly we are faced with individuals pulsating with life, every single detail of their appearance captured, sitters who look back at us and who speak to us through elaborate and often enigmatic inscriptions. These portraits’ ability to baffle by their precision and liveliness is intact today. Their impact belies their intimate scale. We are really proud and grateful to our lenders to be able to show van Eyck’s pioneering contribution to the rise of portraiture in this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition.’
National Gallery Director Gabriele Finaldi says: 'Van Eyck is one of the pillars of the National Gallery's collection and a foundational figure in the European history of art. The portraits reflect a remarkable sensitivity to his sitters and an astounding technical virtuosity in their execution.'
Images
NG186
Jan van Eyck
'Portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and his Wife'
Short title: 'The Arnolfini Portrait', 1434
oil on wood
82.2 × 60 cm
© The National Gallery, London
L1094
Jan van Eyck
'Margaret, the Artist's Wife', 1439
Oil on oak, 32.6 × 25.8 cm
Municipal Museums Bruges, Groeningemuseum
© Municipal Museums Bruges, Groeningemuseum. Photo: The National Gallery, London
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of a Man ('Léal Souvenir')
1432
oil on wood
33.3 × 18.9 cm
© The National Gallery, London
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of a Man (from the Arnolfini family?), about 1440
Oil on panel, 30 × 21.6 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Photo © Scala, Florence
Jan van Eyck
Baudoin de Lannoy, about 1428-1441
oil on panel, 26.6 × 19.5 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin Photo © Scala, Florence
Jan van Eyck
Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon, about 1430
Oil on panel, 22.5 × 16.6 cm
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania
© Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania
