Charles I

Charles I (c. 1750), in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a copy after one of Van Dyck's celebrated portraits of the English king, produced approximately a century after the original. Such copies testify to the enduring prestige of Van Dyck's royal portraits, which continued to define the image of Charles I long after both artist and subject were dead. The king's tragic fate — executed by Parliament in 1649 — added a martyrological dimension to his portraits, which became objects of royalist veneration during and after the Commonwealth. Copies served both political and decorative functions, allowing supporters of the Stuart cause to display their loyalties while providing models for painters studying the art of portraiture.

The portrait follows Van Dyck's established compositional format. The handling suggests an 18th-century copyist, with somewhat flatter paint application and less tonal subtlety than Van Dyck's autograph works, though the overall composition is faithfully reproduced.