AN OUTSTANDING work of art will shortly be on show at one of the North-East’s major museums.

Bowes Museum in Barnard castle, County Durham will soon be displaying Portrait of Olivia Mrs Endymion Porter by Van Dyck as part of an exhibition entitled The English Rose – Feminine Beauty from Van Dyck to Sargent, which opens in May next year.

Celebrating 500 years of female portrait painting, it will also feature paintings by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, Millais, Sargent, Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Van Dyck’s masterpiece of his close friend, produced in around 1637 when he was at the height of his powers, is one of his finest female portraits.

Adrian Jenkins, Director of Bowes Museum, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the gift of this wonderful portrait with its inclusion in our forthcoming exhibition. It will also, of course, enhance the Museum’s permanent collection.”

Born in Antwerp in 1599, Van Dyck is thought to be one of the most important Flemish painters, in particular portraitists, of the 17th century.

The painting’s subject, Olivia Porter was the daughter of John Boteler, first Baron Boteler of Brantfield and his wife Elizabeth Villiers, the sister of the first Duke of Buckingham. Olivia Porter was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Henrietta Maria and in 1619, she married Endymion Porter, the King’s principal picture agent, a leading patron of the arts and a diplomat.

The portrait was probably commissioned by her husband, with the quality of the picture reflecting the close relationship between the artist and the couple. Both Van Dyck and Olivia Porter were devout Roman Catholics and Olivia converted around about the time when the portrait was painted.