Anthony van Dyck, Dorothy, Lady Dacre, About 1633. Oil paint on canvas; 50 × 40 in. (127 × 101.6 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2020.15

image height: 50 in, 127.0000 cm; image width: 40 in, 101.6000 cm; frame height: 66 3/8 in, 168.5925 cm; frame width: 51 in, 129.5400 cm; frame depth: 4 3/4 in, 12.0650 cm

European and American Art Before 1900

European Painting and Sculpture before 1900

This object is currently on view

Sir Anthony van Dyck is considered the most influential portrait painter ever to work in England. Named Principal Painter to Charles I, van Dyck revolutionized the art form, bringing to it a Venetian-inspired blend of grandeur and relaxation. Here he portrayed Lady Dacre, already a widow in her late twenties. Wearing a black dress and black cap in the shape of a “widow’s peak,” she holds a double-headed rose possibly signifying both her widowhood (the fading blossom) and the promise of a future love (the flower about to bloom). 

Thought to be the picture bequeathed by the sitter to her grandson Thomas Chute, 1695; by descent in the Chute family; their sale, Sotheby’s, London, July 9, 1986, lot 26; from which acquired by Heim Gallery Ltd., London; from which acquired by a private American collector; with Simon Gillespie Studio, London; from which acquired by William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Johnson Berger, Denver, 1998; Berger Collection Educational Trust; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2020. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.

• “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018