When Sir Anthony Van Dyck was fighting hangovers to paint 17th Century London society, Washington, D.C. was not yet even a gleam in Architect L'Enfant's eye. This week Washington's National Gallery proudly exhibited "its first full-length portrait from Van Dyck's English period." The portrait, a sparkling evocation of the foppish Duc de Guise, was a New Year's gift from New York Millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. That made the 1,019th painting the National Gallery has been given since it opened its doors in 1941 (it has only found it necessary to buy one painting in that time). It also clearly established...
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