Prince Charles Louis (1617–1680) and Prince Rupert (1619–1682)

ArtistWorkshop copy after Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641, active in Great Britain)

Datecirca 1637–1638

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions50 x 56 in. (127 x 142.2 cm)
Frame: 60 1/8 x 67 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (152.7 x 171.4 x 11.4 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.96

On View

On view

Collections

ProvenanceCreated London, ca. 1637–1638. Probably William Craven, 5th Baron Craven (1705-1769), as Portrait of Maurice and Rupert. [1] Possibly Charles Townshend (1728–1810), Lord Ailwyn, Honingham Hall, Norfolk, England; Charles Frederick Townshend (1785–1823), 1st Lord Bayning, Honingham Hall, Norfolk, England, by 1820; by descent to Henry William Powlett Townshend (1797–1866), 3rd Lord Bayning, Honingham Hall, Norfolk. Arthur Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket (1904–1967), Bramshill House, Hampshire, England; [Sotheby’s, London, July 16, 1952, no. 94, as Van Dyck, Portrait of Maurice and Rupert] [2]; [Koetser Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] Listed on page 12 of “An Inventory of Household Goods, Plate, Linnen, China, Glass, Pictures &c. &c. Belonging to The Right Honbl William Lord Craven taken This ____ Day of June 1769, at Combe Abbey, in Warwickshire. Viz.”, under No. 25, “Lady Craven’s Dressing room”: “The Princes Maurice & Rupert, in one picture === by Vandyke.”

[2] The painting was catalogued in 1820, 1865, and 1952 (the Sotheby’s sale listed above) as a painting of Maurice and Rupert by Van Dyck. The Combe Abbey inventory cannot be referring to the primary version of the composition, now in the Musée du Louvre (Inv. 1238), since it was in the collection of Louis XIV already in 1683, having been sold from the collection of Charles I after his death in 1649. It should also be noted that there is no record of Van Dyck painting a double portrait of Maurice and Rupert. He painted full-length pendant portraits of them upon a visit to The Hague in 1632, but the present picture was painted in London when Charles Louis and Rupert were there in 1637-38. Van Dyck could not have also painted a portrait of Maurice and Rupert at the same time, as Maurice was in France during this period and did not come to London until 1642, a year after Van Dyck’s death.