Oil on canvas, 'Saint Sebastian Tied to a Tree', possibly by Anthony van Dyck, 17th century

There are 2 black and white images on the Paintings Departmental File for this object; one before conservation and one after conservation (c.1990). There is also a poor colour snap-shot. The figure of the saint fills the whole canvas. He is naked apart from a loin cloth and a drape falling over his right arm which in turn points downwards. He is kneeling and his body forms a diagonal across the canvas from his feet at bottom right to his head top left. His head is thrown backwards, and he is looking upwards. A rope is tied around the top of his outstretched left arm, and is pulled across his torso, and disappears out of the picture frame to the left; it appears also to have gone behind his back and is pulled under his right armpit, and also disappears out of the picture frame to the left. Branches of a tree run from top left to right against a cloudy sky, and roots of the tree and trunk entwined with ivy (?) are on the left.

Purchased from Mme. Bodichon, 1878
There is a photocopy on the Paintings Departmental object file which is presumably taken from the Registered Papers, (2981/1878?), of a Science and Art Department, Minute Paper. It is signed "E. J. Poynter" [Edward John Poynter (1836-1919), painter and art administrator, who was appointed to the influential position of director and principal of the National Art Training School at South Kensington in 1875]. It reads "Mme Bodichon, 5 Blandford Square, has a very fine unfinished picture by Van Dyck, which she offers to us for £100. I have seen it and have decided to purchase it out of C.7, as it is a splendid example for our Students. Pl. take the necessary action, informing her that we have decided to purchase, and when we will send for it. E. J. Poynter June 4.78"
"Mme Bodichon", was born Barbara Leigh Smith (1827-1891), artist and women's activist. See DNB for biography. 5 Blandford Square belonged to her father, and was his wedding gift to her in 1857 when she married Eugene Bodichon.

Historical significance: Sir Anthony van Dyck (b. 1599, Antwerp, d. 1641, London) was a Flemish painter and one of the most important and prolific portraitists of the 17th century. He spent two years in the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp and from 1620-1627 traveled in Italy, where he was in great demand as a portraitist and where he developed his maturing style. He toned down the Flemish robustness of his early work to concentrate on a more dignified, elegant manner. In his portraits of Italian aristocrats he painted idealized figures with proud, erect stances, slender figures, and the famous expressive “van Dyck” hands. Influenced by the Venetian painters Titian, Paolo Veronese, and Giovanni Bellini, he adopted their rich, jewel-like colours. In 1632 he moved to London and became court painter to King Charles I, who knighted him shortly after his arrival. Van Dyck painted most of the English aristocracy and his style became lighter and more luminous, with thinner paint and more sparkling highlights in gold and silver. He set a new style for Flemish art and founded the English school of painting; the portraitists Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough of that school were his artistic heirs.

Sir Anthony van Dyck (b. 1599, Antwerp, d. 1641, London) was a Flemish painter and one of the most important and prolific portraitists of the 17th century. He spent two years in the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp and from 1620-1627 traveled in Italy, where he was in great demand as a portraitist and where he developed his maturing style. He toned down the Flemish robustness of his early work to concentrate on a more dignified, elegant manner. In his portraits of Italian aristocrats he painted idealized figures with proud, erect stances, slender figures, and the famous expressive “van Dyck” hands. Influenced by the Venetian painters Titian, Paolo Veronese, and Giovanni Bellini, he adopted their rich, jewel-like colours. In 1632 he moved to London and became court painter to King Charles I, who knighted him shortly after his arrival.

148-1878