Anthony van Dyck

Variant namesauktoriserad namnform: Anthony van Dyck stavningsvariant: Anton van Djick stavningsvariant: Anthonie van Dyck stavningsvariant: Antonis van Deik stavningsvariant: Antoon van Dijk stavningsvariant: Antoine van Dyck

DatesBiographical dates: 1599 - 1641 dead: dead 1641 born: born 1599

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BiographyBiography: Anthony 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.

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