All ten surviving portraits by the Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck are to be displayed together for the first time in history, in a landmark exhibition opening at the National Gallery in London this winter. Van Eyck: The Portraits runs from 21 November 2026 to 11 April 2027 and brings together works on loan from institutions across Europe, representing roughly half of the twenty or so paintings confidently attributed to the artist’s own hand.
Van Eyck, who was active from around 1422 until his death in Bruges in 1441, is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of the Northern Renaissance and a pioneer of oil painting technique. Appointed court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1425 — one of the most powerful rulers in Europe at the time — van Eyck enjoyed exceptional status, undertaking not only artistic commissions but diplomatic missions on the duke’s behalf. In 1428–9, he travelled to Lisbon as part of the embassy sent to negotiate the duke’s marriage to the Portuguese princess Isabella, painting her portrait so it could be sent back to Flanders for approval. The duke later stood as godfather to the artist’s child in 1434.
Historic Reunions and Exceptional Loans
Among the most significant moments in the exhibition will be the first-ever display of the National Gallery’s own iconic Arnolfini Portrait (1434) alongside a panel believed to show the same sitter, Portrait of a Man (Giovanni Arnolfini?) (about 1435–38, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). That van Eyck depicted the same individual twice — something without precedent at the time, outside royal portraiture — points to a particularly close relationship between painter and subject. The Arnolfini Portrait is the most visited painting page on the National Gallery’s website.
Another notable pairing will see the Gallery’s recently conserved Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) (1433) shown next to the likeness of van Eyck’s wife, Margaret (1439, Musea Bruges). The portrait of Margaret holds considerable art-historical significance: it is the earliest dated identifiable portrait of a woman who was not of aristocratic birth, marking the moment when portraiture began to extend its reach beyond dynastic purposes to capture merchants, craftsmen and the artist’s own circle.
The exhibition also features an exceptional loan from Dresden’s Kupferstich-Kabinett: van Eyck’s only surviving drawing, the Portrait of an Elderly Man (about 1438), executed in silverpoint and goldpoint on prepared paper. As the sole certain preparatory study to survive from Netherlandish painting of the period, it affords a rare glimpse into the artist’s working process. It will be reunited — for only the second time ever — with the finished painting it preceded, Portrait of an Elderly Man (A Scholar?) (1438(?), Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna). Notably, the Kunsthistorisches Museum has agreed to lend both of its van Eyck paintings simultaneously for the first time in its history.
A Milestone in the History of Portraiture
Curators argue that van Eyck effectively redefined what a portrait could be. Before his innovations, painted likenesses tended to privilege symbols of status and ideals of elegance over individual character, rendering sitters too generalised to be recognised by those who knew them. With van Eyck, the expectation of an accurate likeness — that a portrait should genuinely resemble its subject — becomes fully realised for the first time. His panels capture bloodshot eyes, growing stubble and untidy hair alongside more permanent features, creating a vivid sense of immediacy that has not diminished in six centuries.
Van Eyck also painted the frames and reverses of his panel portraits in convincing imitation of precious metals and stone, elaborate trompe l’oeil effects designed to be touched and examined at close range. The exhibition will respond to this by displaying several works in the round for the first time, revealing the marbling that survives on their backs. Almost uniquely among artists of the late medieval period, van Eyck systematically signed and dated his paintings — sometimes to the precise day — and in several cases added his personal motto, Als ich kan (As well as I can), all painted to appear as though carved into fictive stone or incised in metal.
Emma Capron, Curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings at the National Gallery, said: ‘Some stories do not have a beginning. Portraiture is one of them. It bursts onto the scene fully formed in the 1430s under the brush of Jan van Eyck. None of the stylised likenesses that preceded his work would pass as a portrait today: you would not recognise their sitters if you walked by them on the street. This changes with van Eyck… These portraits’ ability to baffle by their precision and liveliness is intact today. We are really proud and grateful to our lenders to be able to show van Eyck’s pioneering contribution to the rise of portraiture in this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition.’
National Gallery Director Sir Gabriele Finaldi added: ‘Van Eyck is one of the pillars of the National Gallery’s collection and a foundational figure in the European history of art. The portraits reflect a remarkable sensitivity to his sitters and an astounding technical virtuosity in their execution. This will be an extraordinary opportunity to see them all gathered together in one place.’
Publication and Practical Details
To accompany the exhibition, the National Gallery is publishing what it describes as the first monograph in English dedicated entirely to van Eyck’s portraits — a notable gap given the vast scholarly literature on the artist. The catalogue, authored by Emma Capron and Nicholas Flory with contributions from a range of specialists, runs to 208 pages with 90 illustrations and is priced at £40, with a special gallery price of £35.
The exhibition occupies the Ground Floor Galleries and carries an admission charge. A press view is scheduled for Wednesday 18 November 2026. Tickets and further information are available at nationalgallery.org.uk.
