Van Eyck: The Portraits, an exhibition of early realism.

'Van Eyck: The Portraits' is an exhibition at the National Gallery that brings together all nine of Jan van Eyck's known painted portraits from across Europe, for the first and only time. The show marks the first time in history these works, half of the artist's surviving output, can be seen together. Van Eyck's vision and skill launched painting into a new era of unrivalled realism, capturing intimate details like stubble, wrinkles and flushed cheeks in subjects who lived 600 years ago. The portraits show successful craftsmen, merchants and the artist's relatives rather than kings and queens, telling a story of people and a moment when access to art widened.