National Gallery London Unites All Nine Jan van Eyck Portraits for First Time

For the first time, every surviving portrait by Jan van Eyck will hang in one building. "Van Eyck: The Portraits" opens at the National Gallery in London on November 21 and runs through April 11, 2027, assembling nine panels by the Netherlandish master born around 1390. Alongside the National Gallery's own Arnolfini Portrait, the show draws loans from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the British Museum. Van Eyck divided his career between the easel and diplomacy, acting as a confidential court envoy for Duke Phillip of Burgundy while serving as court painter. Curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings Emma Capron frames the achievement as a rupture: earlier stylized likenesses, she argues, would not be recognized if their sitters passed on the street, whereas van Eyck exploited oil painting's capacity for illusion to produce individuals "pulsating with life," their features recorded in detail and their gaze returned through elaborate multilingual inscriptions. She notes that the pictures still baffle viewers with their precision and liveliness. The selection includes Portrait of Jan de Leeuw (1436) and Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) (1433). Van Eyck's preference for truthful imperfection over flattery set him apart from his contemporary and rival Rogier van der Weyden, whose likenesses were more idealized.