Portrait of a Married Couple
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Oil on canvas, 112 x 131 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

After the years studying in Rubens's workshop and a sojourn in Italy, Van Dyck settled in his native city of Antwerp and soon became one of the most popular portraitists of the wealthy bourgeoisie. For the most part he painted full-length official likenesses, or else family portraits with the sitters posed in setting of homely intimacy. He devised many different arrangements and poses, suiting them to the character and rank of the sitter, but the effect was always serious, noble and distinguised, and the impression of solemnity and reserve was enhanced by the dark costumes - high-necked black garments with starched ruffs - as in the portrait of the couple in Budapest.

In this picture attention is focused on the sharply characterized faces and expressive, delicately depicted hands, while the black and white of the clothes, the red of the armchair, and the gold of the gloves provide a marvellously harmonious background. We do not know the identity of the married couple, unfortunately, and to discover their connection with any particular Antwerp family seems hardly possible today.