Portraits & Portraiture: Wallace Collection Portraits

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)

Marie de Raet

Philippe Le Roy

1631, 1630

Philippe Le Roy (1596-1679) was painted in 1630 to celebrate the couple’s betrothal and Marie de Raet’s (1614-62) portrait followed in 1631: the year of their marriage. When the portraits are placed side by side, the figures are angled towards each other, but they gaze out at the viewer. There are similarities in background and dress, which enable us to make connections between the sitters, while the dogs in each portrait seem to offer us ways in which to understand and interpret the relationship between the figures. Philippe Le Roy's sleek, hunting dog weaves itself around him, its head and muzzle creating a diagonal which leads our eye to Philippe’s face. Marie de Raet's lapdog, on the other hand, sits at Marie’s feet and looks nervously, not at her mistress, but in the direction of Philippe Le Roy.

What do you think this tells us of the way we are meant to understand their relationship?

The sitters’ poses emphasise the difference between expected modes of behaviour for men and women at that time. He takes a slight step upwards, creating a certain energy and movement; she is static, docile and composed.

Marie de Raet was just 16 when this was painted. Looking at this portrait, how do you think she is feeling before her marriage?

Philippe Le Roy was very much a self-made man. Marie de Raet is painted in the latest French fashions and is wearing pearls, the most expensive and fashionable item of jewellery at the time. She is a visual representation of her husband’s wealth, power and refinement.

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) was the leading Flemish painter of the first half of the 17th century, after Rubens. He produced history paintings, tapestry designs, etchings and landscape drawings, although it is chiefly as a portrait painter that he is remembered. He was appointed as court painter to Archduchess Isabella of the Spanish Netherlands and later Charles I of England, who had him buried in St Paul’s Cathedral and erected a lavish monument in his honour on his death in 1641.

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) Marie de Raet Philippe Le Roy 1631, 1630

Materials and technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 68 x 57 cm
Wallace Collection (P79, P94)