Carolus Rex: A Rare English Country House Copy of Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of King Charles I by Gemma Sudlow

As an English woman living in New York, I’ve made it my mission these past few years to celebrate British Royal events with a zeal never before known to me growing up in the UK. Last spring was no exception: my Westchester home was bedecked with bunting, the Victoria Sponge was sagging with jam and cream, and the gin and Pimms were flowing for the coronation of King Charles III. I find delight in the moments, then, where my former life and country of birth come to me in the most unexpected ways in my role as an auctioneer. The discovery, earlier this year, of a time-capsule collection from the country house of Copped Hall in Essex by way of an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, has been a wonderful example of my old life colliding with my current one as I celebrate ten years as a New Yorker.

The sale this June on behalf of the Aline Elwes McDonnell Trust was a highlight of our spring season where bidders from around the globe competed for a slice of English history with superb country house provenance. We kept one work as a highlight for our fall auction season and Old Master and 19th-century pictures sale this November in Philadelphia.

At first glance, the work is a copy of the famous and larger-than-life equestrian portrait of King Charles I in the National Gallery, London. Pentiments, however, (the lack of the equerry offering up the helmet behind the horse, the red sash to King Charles I’s waist, and differences in color to the saddle) all point towards this being an unusual copy with variations. Analysis indicates that this is likely a late 17th or early 18th-century canvas with later additions to left and right (presumably added when the work was united with the present carved and gilded frame), with the central panel closely resembling in size the modello in the Royal Collection (RCIN 400571). Whilst not attributed to Van Dyck or his studio, the work joins the esteemed group of known country house copies listed in Susan J. Barnes et al., Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004, pp. 468–71 and the early full-size copies in the collection of the Prado and (formerly) at Hitchin Priory. Reduced-size copies have been recorded at Hellens, Much Marcle, Ickworth, and the Clarendon Collection.