The ruff magic of Anthony van Dyck

Plus: What to see at Asia Week New York ͏‌

Get more great writing every day – from just £1 a week

Adam Eaker on the flowering of Anthony van Dyck

Van Dyck has a complicated reputation to this day: always famous, always coveted by collectors, yet somehow an uneasy fit in the master narratives of art history that favour history painting, machismo and the kind of high-minded artistic independence supposedly embodied by Van Dyck's predecessor and sometime employer, Rubens. Even in England, where Van Dyck's influence as a portraitist remained pervasive into the 20th century, he has often been dismissed as a courtly sycophant, all flash and no substance. When the biggest exhibition of Van Dyck's art in a quarter-century opens this month in Genoa, it will offer a welcome opportunity to revisit this large and complicated body of work and to question the old prejudices that have hindered its proper appreciation.

Read the full article

Michael Delgado on what to see at Asia Week New York

A Goryeo-dynasty ewer, an Edo-period handscroll, a tri-colour splash vessel by Kawai Kanjirō made in c. 1960, a recent mixed-media work by Jeoung Keun Chan and a selection of Pahari paintings are among the highlights of this year's edition of Asia Week New York, in which not only dealers of Asian art but also museums such as the Met, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago are enthusiastically taking part.

Read the full article

Owen Pritchard asks how green the Welsh Valleys are now

For those who really know, the South Wales Valleys are less of a physical place and more of a mindset. To be from the Valleys is to be part of an identity that has been relentlessly tenacious for centuries. The Valleys occupy a landscape of extraction: beneath them lies the South Wales coalfield. Its population boom came in the second half of the 19th century, driven almost entirely by the rapid expansion of the coal industry. Places like the Rhondda Valley transformed from sparsely populated rural areas into densely packed industrial communities. The Rhondda's population grew from around 1,000 in 1851 to more than 150,000 by 1911. The proceeds of this toil flowed south to Cardiff and filled the coffers of those beyond the border. By the late 1980s, they were gone. This region nurtured the Tonypandy Riots, Dic Penderyn, the Chartists and the Miners' Strike – a history that flips between subservience and defiance. The photographer Jon Pountney sees that tradition clearly.

Read the full article

Susan Moore on the works that turned heads at TEFAF Maastricht

At TEFAF Maastricht there are always works of art that generate a buzz, a crowd, even a polite queue, not so much by pre-publicity as by the word on the fair floor. These include the kinds of masterpieces and rarities that curators or collectors regret not having seen first, resigning themselves, if possible, to a place on the list of reserve buyers. There are also the crowd-pleasers, unexpected masterpieces with universal appeal or resonance. Easier to overlook are those less noisy, exceptional works that dealers and, occasionally, museum professionals buy for their own collections. Together, these are the objects that make Maastricht, at its best, a great fair.

Read the full article

Apollo rounds up the most important recent museum acquisitions

The British Museum has raised the £3.5m it needed to acquire a heart-shaped pendant that dates to the early reign of Henry VIII; the Musée d'Orsay has acquired a remarkably assured self-portrait by Gustave Caillebotte, with a painting by Caillebotte's friend and fellow Impressionist Renoir prominent in the background; the Art Institute of Chicago now has an early oil version of an iconic painting by Norman Rockwell showing Chicago Cubs baseball players looking dejected after a loss; and more.

Read the full article

In the current issue…

Edward Behrens on the sculptor who brought modernism to the edge of Richmond Park

Kingston Vale is not where one normally expects to find a modern masterpiece. But just beyond Putney Vale crematorium, off the A3, is the Dorich House Museum. Built in 1936, the house sits in a plot of just under an acre, the back of it marked by a wall built during the reign of Charles I that runs along the edge of Richmond Park. Fruit trees dot the land around the house. It could not be a more English – or indeed charming – location. Yet the house that looms over this garden scene is not so much art deco as German Expressionist. This, at least, is how The Buildings of England traces its aesthetic heritage, since the story of what shaped this building reaches beyond these borders. The house, which is now managed by Kingston University and celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, is the product of a love affair between the artist Dora Gordine (1895–1991) and the diplomat Richard Hare. The latter paid for the construction of the house, but its design was very much directed by Gordine.

Read the full article

In the next issue…

More from Apollo

Current issue | Advertise | Podcasts

View this email in your browser

Follow us

Apollo Magazine, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP.
All Articles and Content Copyright © 2026 by Apollo Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time.
To ensure our emails are delivered to your inbox, please add Apollo to your email address book and safe-sender list.

ALL NEWS MAG

The ruff magic of Anthony van Dyck

Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

Chris Froome sends out strong message to his rivals as he storms back to win Criterium du Dauphine for the second time

Kid draws a hilarious family portrait, featuring his mother on her period

Jolly guy's laugh is so contagious that even chickens had to join in