Self-portrait with a sunflower [SEP] creator
Self-Portrait with a Sunflower
Self-Portrait with a Sunflower is a self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck, a Flemish Baroque artist from Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands. The oil on canvas is thought to have been painted between the years 1632-1633. Produced at the height of his fame, Anthony van Dyck served as "principal Paynter in order to their Majesties" in the court of Charles I of England whilst working on this self-portrait. The symbolism behind the sunflower and gold chain have been a point
titled "Sir Kenelm Digby with a sunflower." A testament to the friendship between the two men would be the several portraits Van Dyck painted to honour the late Venetia Stanley, Digby's wife. He also completed a family portrait of the Digby couple and their two young children between 1632–33, the same years he worked on his sunflower self-portrait. The sunflower in Kenelm Digby's portrait would not make sense to function as the same symbolic nod to the crown. It would be more accurate for the sunflower to symbolise