The Shepherd Paris (van Dyck) in the Wallace Collection. It was acquired by Henry Hope prior to 1807 before being bought by Francis Charles Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford when the Hope collection was sold at Christie's on 29 June 1816. At that time, it was thought to be a self-portrait of van Dyck himself. The Marquess intended to bequeath the painting to George IV but he outlived the king and was unable to do so. The Shepherd Paris (van Dyck) The Shepherd Paris is a c.1628 painting by the Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck, dating to just after the artist's return from Italy and
Anthony van Dyck portrait tradition—of painters such as William Dobson, Robert Walker and Isaac Fuller—into what certainly became elegant blandness in the hands of many of van Dyck's successors, like Lely or Kneller. The conventional view has always been more favourable: "When Van Dyck came hither he brought Face-Painting to us; ever since which time ... England has excel'd all the World in that great Branch of the Art’ (Jonathan Richardson: "An Essay on the Theory of Painting", 1715, 41). Thomas Gainsborough is reported to have said on his deathbed "We are all going to heaven, and Van Dyck is of the Company."