Dobson in London

5/6/25 - London, Tate Gallery and National Portrait Gallery - The English are proud to count one of their compatriots among the portrait painters who distinguished themselves at the court of Charles I of England: William Dobson established himself there after the Flemish artist Anton Van Dyck and before the Dutch artist Peter Lely. He probably succeeded Van Dyck, who died in 1641, as the king’s official painter, but died in poverty at the age of 35 after leading a dissolute life. His career was therefore short-lived and his output was mainly limited to the 1640s, when Charles I left London and settled with his court in Oxford between 1643 and 1646. A witness to the English Civil War, the painter counted among his models the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and great royalist military…