_Van Dyck_ (Flemish: 1599-1641). _See_ 49.
One of the most celebrated pictures in the Gallery. The title by
which it is commonly known is incorrect; the sitter being not Gaspar
Gevarts or Gevartius, but Cornelius van der Geest, an amateur of the
arts and a friend of Rubens and Van Dyck. It is the grave learning of
a scholar, the gentle refinement of an artist--notice especially "the
liquid, living lustre of the eye"--that Van Dyck here puts before us.
In point of execution this picture ranks as one of the finest portraits
in the world. "From it," says Mr. Watts, R.A., "the modern student
will learn more than from any I am acquainted with. The eyes," he
adds, "are miracles of drawing and painting. They are a little tired
and overworked, and do not so much _see_ anything as indicate the
thoughtful brain behind. How wonderful the flexible mouth! with the
light shining through the sparse moustache. How tremulously yet firmly
painted. The ear: how set on ... so throughout there is no part of
this wonderful portrait that might not be examined and enlarged upon;
but I would ask my fellow-students to do this for themselves. Not a
touch is put in for what is understood by 'effect.' Dexterous in a
superlative degree, there is not in the ordinary sense a dexterous dab
doing duty for honourable serious work: nothing done to look well at
one distance or another, but to be right at every distance" (_Magazine
of Art_, June 1889). Sir Edward Poynter is equally enthusiastic. "This
wonderful portrait," he says, "is perhaps the most perfect head ever
painted by this consummate painter. Not only for the brilliancy and
purity of its flesh tints, the masterly drawing, and the vitality of
the expression, does it rank as one of the masterpieces of portraiture
existing; but for the brushwork, of which every touch expresses with
supreme dexterity all the varieties of form, substance, and texture,
it is unsurpassed, perhaps unrivalled, in the history of painting"
(_National Gallery_, i. 152). Another P.R.A., Benjamin West, copied the
"Gevartius," and at this day there is no picture in the Gallery more
often copied by students.[82] Their preference is justified by that
of the painter himself, who "used to consider it his masterpiece, and
before he had gained his great reputation carried it about with him
from court to court, and patron to patron, to show what he could do as
a portrait painter."[83]