How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
A half-length portrait to left, with Digby in black and his right hand on his breast. The presence of a sunflower on the left is an allegorical symbol indicating his deep loyalty and constancy to the monarch, Charles I. Digby, whose father was executed for involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, was a courtier, naval commander, diplomat and author of books on philosophy and natural science. In 1625 he married Venetia Stanley. Noted for her beauty and intelligence, she was alleged to have been the mistress of Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, while she was betrothed to Digby, who was abroad at the time. Digby detailed his romance to Venetia in his memoirs, 'Loose Fantasies'. Venetia was also the subject of several portraits by van Dyck but after nine years of marriage she died suddenly in 1633, after which the artist, a personal friend of her husband, painted the famous 'Lady Venetia Digby on her Deathbed' for him.
Van Dyck painted several portraits of Digby and it is thought that this one is a studio copy of one of the versions. It is in a remarkable English auricular frame, contemporary with the painting, and a rare survivor in that it still shows its original silvering.
Title
Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665)
Date
1630s
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 91.5 x W 71 cm
Accession number
BHC2658
Work type
Painting
