Anthony van Dyck, 'Portrait of François Langlois', probably early 1630s

In this lively, informal portrait, Anthony van Dyck presents to us someone he had known for several years and whose company he clearly enjoyed. François Langlois was an engraver, art dealer and publisher who lived in Florence and Rome in the 1620s. It’s at that time that he must have met Van Dyck, on the artist’s first trip to Italy, although the picture was painted in the 1630s.

Langlois was also an accomplished amateur musician. He has dressed up for the picture, playing the part of a savoyard – a wandering shepherd and musician – with his cocked hat, a musette de cour tucked under his arm and a sparkle in his eyes. His long-snouted dog gazes up at him, but whether he is a dog borrowed for the occasion or Langlois’s own pet, we don’t know. The deep red of Langlois’s costume makes his weather-beaten skin glow and the white of the sleeve and the fragment of shirt at his neck bring brilliance to the image.

The musette de cour is a small bagpipe, with a quiet tone similar to an oboe. It originated as a folk instrument but was taken up by the French royal court. It featured in grander musical entertainments, especially in scenes set in the fashionable Arcadian style, in which aristocratic actors and musicians took the part of humble rustic characters against an idyllic background. With the bellows strapped over his white sleeve, Langlois’s fingers already feeling for the finger holes on the chanter, he glances away to the left, smiling an encouraging smile, as if waiting for other musicians to be ready to play.

This image shows quite a different relationship from the formal one Van Dyck had with aristocratic sitters at the opulent and elegant court of Charles I. He has portrayed his friend with great affection and with no attempt at the flattery he used on his English courtiers. Langlois is totally at ease, engrossed in the performance that is about to begin. Set against the sky and a rural landscape, he is himself like a breath of fresh air. Despite Van Dyck’s change of circumstances and his elevation to a knighthood by Charles I, his friendship with Langlois must have continued, as Langlois acted as an agent, acquiring paintings on behalf of the king and other English collectors from his home in Paris.