Exactly six hundred years ago, in the misty and dignified light of the North, a man irreversibly changed the way we see the world. Jan van Eyck wielded oil paint not merely as a tool but as an alchemical spell to imprison reality on canvas. What will echo through the corridors of the National Gallery this winter is not just paintings; they are living, breathing souls gazing at you from those wooden panels, whispering from centuries past.
Van Eyck’s brush is as meticulous as a surgeon’s and as sensitive as a poet’s. The details he captures with merciless honesty actually give birth to the deepest human beauty. In the exhibited portraits, you can see in full nakedness the slight flush of a cheek, the wet gleam in an eye, and even the fresh stubble on a merchant’s face. By bringing art down from the monopoly of kings and aristocrats to artisans, friends, and his own circle, he effectively wrote the manifesto of immortality for the “ordinary person.”
This winter, the National Gallery is hosting an unprecedented—and almost impossible—reunion in art history. All nine portraits definitively attributed to Van Eyck worldwide are gathering under one roof for the first time. Bringing together these works, long considered too fragile and priceless to travel, is not just an exhibition but a monumental curatorial triumph. Each piece carries whispers of the past like silent witnesses into the heart of London.
At the centre of this magnificent reunion stands, without doubt, the National Gallery’s most beloved treasure: the “Arnolfini Portrait.” This iconic work, which has barely left the gallery in over a century, now establishes a mystical kingdom surrounded by its own kin. The couple gazing from that famous convex mirror into today’s modern world once again proves that Van Eyck’s optical vision was far ahead of its time.
Running from 21 November 2026 to 11 April 2027, this exhibition is the kind of appointment you may witness only once in a lifetime. Entering Van Eyck’s world means bearing witness to an optical miracle, a silent poem written with a brush, and the birth certificate of the modern individual. When you step through these doors in London’s winter sun, you will meet those “familiar” strangers gazing at you from 600 years ago—and you will see that, though time passes, the ancient melancholy, curiosity, and pride within the human soul have never changed.
