National Gallery to Reunite Every Surviving Jan van Eyck Portrait in Landmark Exhibition – Our Culture

The National Gallery will stage the first-ever exhibition dedicated entirely to the portraits of Jan van Eyck this winter, bringing together all ten of the Netherlandish master’s surviving portraits for the very first time. Opening 21 November 2026 and running until 11 April 2027, Van Eyck: The Portraits will unite works from major collections across Europe. This includes nine painted portraits as well as the artist’s only surviving drawing, Portrait of an Elderly Man, which will be reunited with its corresponding painting for the second time in history.

The exhibition will feature a series of remarkable reunions, including the Gallery’s Arnolfini Portrait displayed alongside Portrait of a Man (Giovanni Arnolfini?) from Berlin, as well as Van Eyck’s newly conserved Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) exhibited with his portrait of his wife, Margaret. Together, the works chart Van Eyck’s revolutionary approach to portraiture, revealing his unprecedented attention to individual likeness, psychological presence and material illusion at a time when portraits largely served dynastic or symbolic purposes.

Accompanied by new research into Van Eyck’s techniques, original frames and inscriptions, the exhibition will explore how the fifteenth-century painter transformed the genre of portraiture and elevated the status of the artist during the Northern Renaissance. The accompanying catalogue will also become the first English-language monograph devoted exclusively to Van Eyck’s portraits.