- NameAnthony van Dyck
- Sexmale
- Variant namesstavningsvariant: Anthonie van Dyck
stavningsvariant: Antonis van Deik
stavningsvariant: Antoon va
- Nationality/DatesFlemish, born 1599, dead 1641
BiographyAnthony van Dyck was born in Antwerp 22
March 1599 as the son of a wealthy silk and textile
merchant Frans van Dyck and his wife Maria
Cuypers. In 1609 he was listed a pupil of Hendrik van
Balen. He was already a successful portrait painter at
the age of fourteen. In 1613 he began to work in
Peter Paul Rubens’ studio and in 1618 he became
master in the Antwerp guild of St. Luke. In 1620, as
assistant and collaborator to Rubens, he executed
ceiling paintings for the new Jesuit Church in
Antwerp. In 1620 or 1621 he took the painter Justus
van Egmont as his assistant. By the autumn of 1620
Van Dyck was in England working in the service of
King James I. Thereafter he returned to Antwerp
where he remained until his departure to Italy on 3
Oct 1621. He went first to Genoa where he stayed
with friends from Antwerp, the painters Cornelis and
Lucas de Wael. He travelled widely visiting Rome,
Florence, Venice and Palermo. Van Dyck’s famous
Italian sketchbook, where he noted the pictures that
made a special impression on him, is today in the
British Museum, London. In Genoa he collaborated
with Jan Roos who painted the still life elements in
his pictures. In Rome he quarreled with the Netherlandish
group of painters called Bentvueghels. In 1625
he travelled to Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence to
visit the French scholar Nicolas Claude F. de Peiresc.
In the autumn of 1627 Van Dyck returned to the
Netherlands and settled in Antwerp the following
year. He set up a studio with many assistants helping
him to fulfill his many commissions for large altarpieces.
He also began working with engravers making
prints after his compositions.The idea for his famous
series of engraved portraits The Iconography seems to
have developed at this time.
In May 1630 he was appointed court painter to
Archduchesss Isabella Clara Eugenia in Brussels but
continued to live in Antwerp. In 1630/1632 he also
worked for the court of Frederik Hendrik and Amalia
van Solms in The Hague, the Prince and Princess of
Orange and at the court of Frederick of Palatinate and
his wife Elizabeth Stuart. By 1 April 1632 Van Dyck
had returned to London where, on 5th July he was
knighted by Charles I. In the winter of 1634 he travelled
to Flanders. In Brussels he painted the portrait of
the new Governor General, Cardinal Infant Ferdinand,
today in the Prado, Madrid. By spring 1635 he
was again in London where he established a studio at
Blackfriars. His years in England were highly successful
and there he received his definite breakthrough as a
portraitist with his depiction of Charles I and the English
aristocracy. His portraits from these years were
also to exert great influence on the development of
portraiture all over Europe. Among his pupils in London
was the Delft painter David Beck who later
became court painter to Queen Christina of Sweden .
In 1639 Van Dyck married Mary Ruthven, a noble ladyin-
waiting to the queen with whom he had one daughter,
Justiniana. In December 1641 Van Dyck died after
a fatal illness and was buried in St. Pauls Cathedral.
In the beginning of his career Van Dyck was largely
influenced by Rubens. As a result, many of Van
Dyck’s early religious paintings are confused with
works by Rubens. From Van Dyck’s Sketchbook it is
evident that he greatly admired Titian’s works. He
owned engravings after the Venetian master and he
also acquired some of his paintings.