Charles I at the Hunt face swap

Where this one comes from

Van Dyck painted this in London in 1635, eight years into his post as principal painter to Charles I and fourteen years before the king was beheaded in Whitehall. It broke the rules of royal portraiture on purpose: no throne, no robes, no regalia, just a short man in riding clothes standing in a field while a servant holds the horse. The picture left England after the monarchy fell and was bought for the French crown in 1775. It is in the Louvre.

What is in the picture

Silver-grey satin doublet, red breeches, boots turned down, a wide black hat set at an angle, a cane held loosely, and one hand on the hip. Behind him a horse dips its head and a groom looks the other way, so that the only figure addressing the viewer is the king. The landscape is English, damp and unremarkable. Charles was about five foot four; Van Dyck put the viewpoint low so that you are looking up at him without noticing.

When people use it

For casual superiority. It fits the person who turns up underdressed and outranks everybody anyway, and it is the face for looking at somebody down the length of your nose politely.

How your face lands in it

A three-quarter head under a broad tilted hat brim, lit softly from the front, with hair to the shoulders and a pointed beard. Everything the picture is about — the posture, the hat, the satin, the horse — sits outside the swap and stays. Bring an evenly lit photograph; the original has almost no hard shadow on the face.

Charles I at the Hunt — Anthony van Dyck, c. 1635. Anthony van Dyck died in 1641, so the painting has been in the public domain for centuries and a faithful reproduction of it acquires no new rights. Source

Also in: Paintings · Royal portraits · Baroque