Altson, Aby (1866-1948; English/Australian), after van Dyck, Anthony (1599-1641; Flemish)
Portrait of a Lady of rank with her daughter 1891
Oil on canvas, 200.8 x 134.0 cm
Presented by the artist under the terms of the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship, 1892
National Gallery of Victoria (p.398.1-1)
Van Dyck’s original painting (c.1632) is in the Louvre. Altson’s copy, on the same scale as the original, is obviously in need of restoration.
The NGV also holds a companion canvas by the artist’s younger brother Meyer Altson, a copy after a portrait of a “man of rank with his son,” also donated under the terms of the Travelling Scholarship in 1905 (but not included in this catalogue, since it was acquired in the Felton Bequest era).
The present canvas is one of several copies of van Dyck acquired for the NGV by 1904, although the only original works by him in the pre-Felton collection were three of his etchings from the Iconography: see linked artist entry.
Refs.
AR 1892, p.25; SB, p.398 (June 1892: valued at £52/10); NGV 1894, p.52 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.50); NGV 1905, p.143 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 6th bay, no.19)
For van Dyck’s original painting of the un-named Lady and her daughter (Louvre acc.no.1243), see e.g. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Portrait_of_a_Lady_with_her_Daughter_-_Anthony_van_Dyck_-_Louvre_INV_1243 (size given as 204 x 136 cm)
For Meyer Altson’s canvas, dated c.1905 (acc.no.244-2; size given as 200.4 x 132.2 cm), see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3349/ (with reproduction). A quick internet search of van Dyck’s extant male portraits (August 2018) did not turn up a comparable original, but further research may prove successful