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The Arnolfini Portrait
Jan van Eyck
An early oil panel of extraordinary optical precision, and a benchmark for the handling of thin, brittle fifteenth-century supports.
- Artist
- Jan van Eyck
- Date
- 1434
- Medium
- Oil on oak panel
- Dimensions
- 82.2 × 60 cm
- Location
- The National Gallery, London
History
What the record shows
Van Eyck signed the wall of the room itself, a declaration of presence unusual for the period.
The panel travelled from Bruges to Spain and then to London by way of the Napoleonic wars, arriving in the National Gallery in 1842.
Provenance
Chain of ownership
- 01Bruges, 1434
- 02Spanish royal collections, 16th century
- 03Taken from Spain during the Peninsular War, 1816
- 04National Gallery, London, from 1842
