Art Society Talk on Jan van Eyck Ahead of Historic Exhibition
Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff to explain what his paintings were for
The Arnolfini Wedding by van Eyck at the National Gallery
October 14, 2026
This November, the National Gallery will bring together all nine surviving independent portraits by the fifteenth-century master, Jan van Eyck’s — a feat it describes as unprecedented and, realistically, unrepeatable. The panels normally live in five museums across four countries, and several have not travelled for decades.
The Arnolfini Portrait has left Trafalgar Square only once in more than a century; the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has never before lent both of its Van Eycks at the same time. That the entire corpus of surviving portraits amounts to just nine paintings is itself a reminder of how much has been lost in the six centuries since Van Eyck worked, and how precious the remnants have become.
The question is asked at the forthcoming lecture for The Arts Society Ealing is therefore not “what do these portraits look like?” but “what were they for?”
On Monday 26 October, art historian Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff will discuss how visitors arriving at the exhibition may carry modern assumptions about portraiture: that a portrait records a likeness, that it shows a face, that it captures how someone looked. These ideas are not wrong, but they are insufficient for understanding Van Eyck’s achievement. His portraits were not simply pictures but instruments — objects that could function as legal documents, diplomatic tools, repositories of status, or surrogates for the living body.
Ms Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff runs Art Historical London, a company offering lectures, courses, tours and museum visits from Amsterdam, London and New York, and since 2020 online. Her teaching spans institutions including Dulwich Picture Gallery, Roundtable, the Timken Museum, the New York Adventure Club, Academy Travel and the Art Academy in Sydney, as well as organisations in the Netherlands. Her lecture aligns closely with the National Gallery’s exhibition, offering local audiences a chance to explore the ideas behind the show before it opens.
The event takes place at St Barnabas Church Hall, Pitshanger Lane, Ealing W5 1QG, with doors opening at 6.45pm and the lecture beginning at 7.30pm. Visitors are welcome, with tickets priced at £10 (students £3), payable by card on the evening.
The Arts Society Ealing belongs to the large umbrella organisation, The Arts Society, previously known as the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS), which was founded in 1968. The local Society has a membership of around 140.
The Arts Society Ealing holds 10 lectures a year and more information can be found by visiting its web site.
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