The Observer
News 09.01.22 11As a leading art historian, Christopher
Wright has uncovered several old
master paintings in public and private
collections over fi ve decades. Now he
has discovered that a copy of a paint-
ing by Sir Anthony van Dyck , which
he bought for himself for £65 in 1970,
may actually be an original by the
17th-century Flemish court painter to
King Charles I.
“I bought it from a jobbing dealer in
west London,” he said. “I was buying it
as a copy, as an art historian. I took no
notice of it, in a strange way.
“The syndrome is the cobbler’s chil-
dren are the worst shod. So the art his-
torian’s collection is the least looked
at.”
Wright has estimated that the
painting might be worth at least
£40,000, although some Van Dycks
have fetched seven- fi gure sums.
The painting, a portrait of Isabella
Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain and
Regentess of the Spanish Netherlands,
has been hanging in his sitting room
for years. Now, having realised its sig-
nifi cance, he wants it to go to a public
institution. He is putting it on perma-
nent loan to the Cannon Hall Museum,
Barnsley, which boasts a collection of
fi ne 17th-century Dutch and Flemish
paintings.
Wright’s previous discoveries
include a Stubbs portrait in the Ferens
Art Gallery, Hull , and his publications
include studies of 17th-century artists
such as Rembrandt.
He looked at the infanta’s portrait
more closely only after it caught the
eye of a visitor to his home, Colin
Harrison, senior curator of European
Art at the Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford. “He comes to see me. We chat.
He says, ‘I really think your picture is
by Van Dyck,’’’ said Wright.
“When you own something, you
Sinéad O’Connor’s 17-year-old son
has been found dead, two days after
he was reported missing.
The musician shared the news on
social media, writing that he “decided
to end his earthly struggle” and asked
that “no one follows his example”.
In the early hours of yesterday
morning, O’Connor tweeted : “My
Sinéad O’Connor’s son, 17, found
dead two days after going missing
beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali
Shane O’Connor, the very light of my
life, decided to end his earthly strug-
gle today and is now with God. May
he rest in peace and may no one fol-
low his example. My baby. I love you
so much. Please be at peace.”
The Garda Siochána confi rmed the
teenager’s death yesterday.
Shane O’Connor had been miss-
ing since Thursday, when the gardaí
launched an appeal for his where-abouts. He had disappeared from
Newbridge, County Kildare, and was
last seen on Friday morning in the
Tallaght, Dublin 24 area, according to
the gardaí. In the appeal, which was
reissued on Friday, offi cers said they
were concerned for his welfare.
At the time, the singer had posted
heartfelt messages on social media
asking her son to contact her. “Shane,
your life is precious. God didn’t chisel
that beautiful smile on your beautiful
face for nothing,” she tweeted.
“My world would collapse without
you. You are my heart. Please don’t
stop it from beating. Please don’t
harm yourself. Go to the Gardai and
let’s get you to hospital.”Another said: “This is a message for
my son, Shane. Shane, it’s not funny
any more all this going missing. You
are scaring the crap out of me. Could
you please do the right thing and pre-
sent yourself at a Gardai station. If you
are with Shane please call the Gardai
for his safety.”The gardaí confi rmed the search
had ended following the recovery of
a body in the Bray area of Wicklow on
Friday. A spokesperson said the “miss-
ing person appeal in respect of Shane
O’Connor has been stood down”.
Messages of condolence on social
media included one from Shane
MacGowan, the former Pogues singer.
He tweeted: “Sinead you have always
tried to heal & help. I pray that you can
be comforted & fi nd strength, healing
& peace in your own sorrow & loss. He
was a beautiful boy and I loved him.”In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can
be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@
samaritans.org or [email protected].Hanging in plain sight: art expert learns that
£65 ‘replica’ on his wall may be an old master
Van Dyck may very well have painted
them.”
When buying it, Wright had
assumed that it was one of numer-
ous copies of Van Dyck’s infanta por-
traits in various formats, including
full, three-quarter and half-length
versions. His is half-length, an oil on
canvas measuring 81.5cm by 70.5cm.LEFT
The painting
of the infanta
reveals well-
painted hands,
say experts;
below, a self-
portrait by Van
Dyck. George
Mavroedis, AlamyIn each, she appears in a nun’s
habit, signalling her mourning and
piety after the death of her husband,
Archduke Albert VII of Austria , in
1621. She became Regentess of the
Netherlands and ruled in her own
right until her death in 1633, aban-
doning the lavish jewellery and cloth-
ing in which she had been painted in
her younger days.
Wright acknowledged that she had
been a pious woman, a good adminis-
trator and an arts patron, but he never
particularly liked the portrait. “My
nickname for it was ‘Er Indoors’ after
Rumpole of the Bailey. She’s a kind of
doom-ridden personality.”
Inspired by Harrison, he took
it to the Courtauld Institute of Art
in London, where it has been exam-
ined and restored. “It was dirty and
had yellow varnish, but it was in
decent condition,” he said. “The whole
thing looks absolutely magnifi cent
now.”
It is thought to date from between
1628 and 1632. Van Dyck had by then
worked in England for King James I
and as court painter to the infanta
and, in 1632, he returned to England,
where Charles I appointed him “prin-
cipalle Paynter” and knighted him.
The Courtauld’s report, by Kendall
Francis and Timothy McCall , notes
that Van Dyck and his workshop pro-
duced many such infanta portraits
and that it can be “very challenging” to
determine the extent to which assis-
tants were involved.
They conclude: “The adroit skill
leads us to tentatively propose that
[it] can be attributed to Van Dyck’s
workshop and that it was completed
during his lifetime and under his
supervision.”
Wright noted that, while some
believe that the half-length version in
the Walker art gallery, Liverpool, is by
Van Dyck, “that is not an opinion held
by the Walker”, whose online descrip-
tion refers to it as from Van Dyck’s stu-
dio and “possibly” the artist.
Discussing the qualities of his ver-
sion, he said: “The hands are beauti-
ful. When it’s a studio execution, the
hands, they can’t do them. The struc-
ture of the face is right, her clothes are
beautifully done. There’s no copyist
busy here.”Christopher Wright
bought what appeared
to be a Van Dyck copy
in 1970 – now it could
be wor t h up to £1 m
don’t take any notice of it. It was the
sitter’s hands that set it off. That’s
what Colin noticed.”
Harrison recalled: “In the normal
way of a museum curator, I immedi-
ately was looking around the walls. It
seemed to me that this was an inter-
esting and possibly good picture
[and] that, if you got the hands right,Dalya AlbergeClea SkopelitiThe musician
had pleaded with
her son Shane- ‘the very light
of my life’ – to
contact her or
the police.