Art Gallery

Dijck, Anthony van (1599 Antwerp - 1641 London), Van Dyck, next to Rubens the most important Flemish painter, was the seventh child of a well-to-do silk merchant in Antwerp. After the early death of his mother he was sent at the young age of eleven to be trained by the Romanist Hendrik van Balen. 

In 1615 he already has his own workshop and an apprentice. In 1618 he was accepted as a full member of the Lukas Guild. From 1617 to 1620 he was the pupil and assistant of Rubens, who considered him his best pupil. They became friends, van Dyck living at Rubens' house and painting many pictures on his own after Rubens' design. Van Dyck's great talent, his untiring diligence and perhaps also Rubens' friendship combined to bring him commissions of his own very soon. Besides religious and mythological scenes he also painted some important life-like portraits, which were to become his main work. His pride and ambition made it hard for him to stand in Rubens' shadow in Antwerp. He therefore followed an Invitation from the Earl of Arundel to London, where he stayed several months. 

From 1621 to 1627 he lived in Italy, studying the works of Giorgione and Titian. He entered Genoa on a white horse, a present from Rubens, also visiting Rome, Venice, Turin and Palermo. Titian's influence shows clearly in his painting of Madonna's and Holy families; works such as the "The Tribute Money" or the " The Four Ages of Man" could have been by the great Venetian painter himself. In 1627 he returned to Antwerp, where he was given a triumphal welcome. He received many commissions for churches, and became court painter to the Archduchess Isabella in 1630. 

In March 1632 King Charles I called him to England as court painter where he remained, apart from short visits abroad, until his end. Van Dyck became the celebrated portraitist of the English court and aristocracy, and created in this field a style typically his own. In under ten years he painted over 350 pictures, of which 37 were of the King and 35 of the Queen. His extravagant way of life - he had five servants - required a constant flow of commissions and a large studio. Often he merely made a portrait sketch, painting face and hands and leaving the rest to be completed by his assistants. He worked feverishly, weakened by thirty years' hard work and perhaps already feeling signs of his impending illness, rushing in his last years between England, Antwerp, Paris and back to England. But his great plans - frescos in the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall for the English kings, the decoration of the hunting castle of Philip IV in Madrid and a series of paintings in the Louvre for the French monarch - did not materialize, perhaps partly because his fees were exorbitant. Although van Dyck lacked the necessary vitality that Rubens possessed in addition to his genius, he created with his representative portraits, which he marked by their dignity, elegance and detachment as well as close psychological observation and fine use of colours, a type of painting that influenced many generations. He was in particular a stimulus to English painters such as Gainsborough, Reynolds and Lawrence.