Campagne rond Van Dycks laatste zelfportret

The National Portrait Gallery launched a Save Van Dyck campaign: a joint effort by the National Portrait Gallery and the Art Fund to bring Sir Anthony Van Dyck's magnificent final self-portrait into their public collection.

The painting is one of just three known self-portraits created by Van Dyck during his time in Britain, where he found success as King Charles I's principal court painter. The artist painted it sometime between 1640 and 41, and he died just a few months after its completion, aged just 42.

The self-portrait has been in private collections for many years, and has been purchased by a private collector in the USA - but the British government has placed a temporary export bar on the work, thus giving the opportunity to raise the funds needed to keep it in the UK, in a public collection, so that everyone can enjoy it.

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