Sir Anthony van Dyck was by far the most influential painter to have worked in Britain during the seventeenth century. Flemish by birth, he found patronage in a number of European countries, but his longest stay was in England, which he made his home from the beginning of his second visit in 1632 until his death in 1641 (with a hiatus in Antwerp in 1634-35). While his predecessors from the Low Countries had brought to Britain hints of what painting might become, it was Van Dyck who decisively turned British portraiture away from the stiff, formal “iconic” approach of Tudor and Jacobean painting. In England he developed the distinctive fluid, shimmering style that was to dominate portraiture in Britain not just during the seventeenth century but right up until the early years of the twentieth century. Rewarded by his most famous patron, Charles I, with a knighthood, his enduring influence—and a sense that it would be impossible to best him—was universally recognised and remarked on not only by his contemporaries but also by his successors.

John Belasyse (1614–1689) was born to a Catholic family in Newburgh Grange, Yorkshire. A soldier and administrator, during the Civil War he raised six regiments for the king. He was imprisoned by the Parliamentary side on four occasions and was shot in the head during one battle, but recovered and remained a loyal royalist throughout the wars and Interregnum. At the Restoration his career was frustrated by his Catholicism; he was forced to resign as Governor of Tangier, and was implicated in the alleged Popish Plot (1678) for which he was imprisoned for six years. Following James II’s accession to the throne, Belasyse took up a position at court, and in 1686 he was appointed Private Councilor of the King and the following year, First Lord of the Treasury. From 1671 until his death he lived at Whitton near Twickenham and was visited there by Samuel Pepys, who was impressed by Belasyse’s large collection of paintings, including the portrait by Van Dyck painted some thirty years before.

Scholars unanimously date the painting to 1636, when Belasyse was twenty-two years old and Van Dyck was at the height of his activity as a portraitist at the court of Saint James. The consummate courtly artist, Van Dyck presents Belasyse as a paragon of masculine power and grace. His costume combines fashionable elements—the mane of tousled curls, a lace-trimmed shirt and cravat, leather gauntlets, a black silk bracelet studded with a diamond, and a vivid pink silk doublet slashed at the sleeves and embroidered at the edges in gold thread—with allusions to martial prowess, including a breastplate, sword, and an ornamental striped silk baldric. By evoking the common contemporary visual vernacular associated with the aristocratic warrior, Van Dyck styles Belasyse as a romantic figure, at once courtier, military hero, and adventurer, a common archetype in Stuart England. Though the portrait was painted before the Civil War, these fashions became associated with the Royalist cause; indeed, they were largely inspired by the impeccable attire of Charles I.
Several copies of this portrait can be found in British private collections, at Newburgh Priory in North Yorkshire, Althorp in Northamptonshire, and finally a small version at Stonor Park in Oxfordshire.

The artwork has been notified by the Italian government and is only available for sale within Italy.