After Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick

This is a small, sketch-like copy done by an unknown artist after a portrait by the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. It shows Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1587–1658), a courtier of King Charles I who opposed many of the King’s political and religious policies. He sided with Parliament against the King during the British Civil Wars.

Warwick was a leading Puritan (an English Protestant opposed to the policies of the both the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church) and had great influence over Puritans in Essex and Norfolk, where he was Lord Lieutenant. Puritan values were traditionally strict, but he reportedly displayed a more relaxed approach when it came to his own lifestyle. As Admiral of the Fleet and Lord Lieutenant of part of East Anglia, Warwick was well placed to secure control of the seas for the Parliamentarian cause for the duration of the Civil Wars. He was also involved in colonial enterprises in the Americas and privateering missions against the Spaniards.

This version is copied after the second of two portrait types that Van Dyck painted of Warwick, both of which depict him standing full-length. The best surviving version of this composition showing Warwick in armour is in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, and several other versions and copies exist (the other, earlier portrait type showing Warwick in fashionable courtly attire is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). This version is painted using a very limited range of colours in a technique known as grisaille. This approach accentuates the tonal variation of the image, just as in a print.

Warwick looks directly out of the picture at the viewer, lightly leaning against a column. His confident expression and pose is in keeping with contemporary descriptions of his personality as generally serious and even harsh, though also capable of being amusing. The armour the earl wears has been simplified from that shown in Van Dyck’s original painting, the details of which suggest that it was probably Dutch-made. It is incomplete: a gauntlet (hard to see in this copy, but clear in the original) lies on the ledge of the plinth, and his helmet is prominently positioned on top. The long baton he holds is a symbol of military command, as a Lord Lieutenant and Admiral. The plinth and voluminous curtain against which he stands were common conventions in portraiture, designed to give an impression of monumentality and grandeur.