The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealthy silk merchant inAntwerp, Anthony painted from an early age. He was successful as an independent painter in his late teens and became a master in theAntwerp Guild on 18 October 1617.[4] By this time, he was working in the studio of the leading northern painter of the day,Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work.
Van Dyck worked in London for some months in 1621, then returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627, mostly inGenoa. In the late 1620s he completed his greatly admiredIconography series of portraitetchings of mainly other artists and other famous contemporaries. He spent five years in Flanders after his return from Italy, and from 1630 was court painter for the ArchduchessIsabella, Habsburg Governor of Flanders. At the request ofCharles I of England he returned in 1632 to London as the main court painter.
With the exception ofHolbein, van Dyck and his contemporaryDiego Velázquez were the first painters of pre-eminent talent to work mainly as court portraitists, revolutionising the genre. Van Dyck is best known for his portraits of the aristocracy, most notably Charles I, and his family and associates. He was the dominant influence onEnglish portrait-painting for over 150 years. He also paintedmythological,allegorical andbiblical subjects, including altarpieces, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, and was an important innovator inwatercolour andetching.
His influence extends into the modern period. TheVan Dyke beard is named after him. During his lifetime, Charles I granted him aknighthood, and he was buried inSt Paul's Cathedral, an indication of his standing at the time of his death.
Anthony van Dyck was born in Antwerp on 22 March 1599 as the seventh of 12 children of his parents. He was baptized the next day in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (now theAntwerp Cathedral).[5] His father was Frans van Dyck, a well-to-do silk merchant. His mother was Maria Cupers (or Cuypers), daughter of Dirk Cupers (or Cuypers) and Catharina Conincx and the second wife of Anthony's father. He was baptised on 23 March 1599 (as Anthonio).[1] His parental grandfather, also called Anthoni, had commenced his career as a painter and had been registered in 1556 as a master painter at the AntwerpGuild of Saint Luke as a pupil of Jan Ghendrick, alias van Cleve. The elder brother of his grandfather was also admitted as master painter in the Guild and had studied with Geert Ghendrick.[6] He had later become a successful merchant in silk and small writing articles. He had bought the birth house of Anthony called Den Berendans (The Bear Dance) on the Grote Markt in Antwerp (Main Square) in 1579. On Anthony's mother's side there were also a few artists who were Guild members.[5]
Self-portrait, 1613–14
After his birth his family moved to a house called the Kasteel van Rijssel (Castle ofLille) in the Korte Nieuwstraat. His mother died when he was only 8 years old. At the time the family was living in a more luxurious house in the Korte Nieuwstraat called the Stadt van Ghent (City of Ghent).[5] His artistic talent was evident very early. When he was 10 years old, he started his formal training as a painter withHendrick van Balen the Elder. Van Balen was a successful painter of small cabinet paintings who had multiple pupils. It is not known how long he studied with van Balen, and estimates vary from two to four years. While it was common for apprentices to stay on in their master's workshop until they were formally registered as a master in the local guild, van Dyck is believed to have left his master's workshop in 1615 or 1616 to set up his independent workshop before he became a master. The reason was that in that period his father was experiencing financial difficulties and could use any assistance he could get. It was during the period van Dyck may have started painting the series of panels of Christ and the Apostles in bust-length, although it is also possible that this only happened after his first return from Italy in 1620–21.[6][5]
By the age of fifteen he was already a highly accomplished artist, as shown by hisSelf-portrait dated 1613–14.[7] He was admitted to the AntwerpGuild of Saint Luke as a free master on Saint Luke's day, 18 October 1617.[4]
Within a few years he became the chief assistant toPeter Paul Rubens, the leading master painter of Antwerp and the whole of Northern Europe. Rubens operated a large workshop and often relied on sub-contracted artists. His influence on the young artist was immense. Rubens referred to the nineteen-year-old van Dyck as "the best of my pupils".[8]
The Lomellini family, 1625–27
The origins and exact nature of their relationship are unclear. It has been speculated that van Dyck was a pupil of Rubens from about 1613, as even his early work shows little trace of van Balen's style, but there is no clear evidence for this.[9]
At the same time the dominance of Rubens in the relatively small and declining city of Antwerp probably explains why, despite his periodic returns to the city, van Dyck spent most of his career abroad.[9] In 1620, in Rubens's contract for the major commission for the ceiling of theCarolus Borromeuskerk, theJesuit church at Antwerp (lost to fire in 1718), van Dyck is specified as one of the "discipelen" who was to execute the paintings to Rubens' designs.[10] Unlike van Dyck, Rubens worked for most of the courts of Europe, but avoided exclusive attachment to any of them.[citation needed]
In 1620, at the instigation ofGeorge Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, van Dyck went to England for the first time where he worked for KingJames I of England, receiving £100.[9] It was inLondon in the collection of theEarl of Arundel that he first saw the work ofTitian, whose use of colour and subtle modeling of form would prove transformational, offering a new stylistic language that would enrich the compositional lessons learned from Rubens.[11]
Landscape with a Gnarled Tree and a Farm, Pen and brown ink,The Met
He returned to Flanders after about four months, and then left in late 1621 for Italy, where he remained for six years. There he studied the Italian masters while starting a successful career as a portraitist. He was already presenting himself as a figure of consequence, annoying the rather bohemian Northern artist's colony inRome, saysGiovan Pietro Bellori, by appearing with "the pomp ofZeuxis ... his behaviour was that of a nobleman rather than an ordinary person, and he shone in rich garments. Since he was accustomed in the circle of Rubens to noblemen, and being naturally of elevated mind, and anxious to make himself distinguished, he therefore wore—as well as silks—a hat with feathers and brooches, gold chains across his chest, and was accompanied by servants."[12]
He was mostly based inGenoa, although he also travelled extensively to other cities, and stayed for some time inPalermo inSicily, where he was quarantined during the 1624 plague, one of the worst in Sicily's history. There he produced an important series of paintings of the city's plague saintSaint Rosalia. His depictions of a young woman with flowing blonde hair wearing a Franciscan cowl and reaching down toward the city of Palermo in its peril, became the standard iconography of the saint from that time onward and was extremely influential for Italian Baroque painters, fromLuca Giordano toPietro Novelli. Versions include those inMadrid,Houston,London,New York andPalermo, as well asSaint Rosalia Interceding for the City of Palermo in Puerto Rico, andCoronation of Saint Rosalia in Vienna. Van Dyck's series of St Rosalia paintings have been studied byGauvin Alexander Bailey andXavier F. Salomon, both of whom curated or co-curated exhibitions devoted to the theme of Italian art and the plague.[13][14][15] In 2020, theNew York Times published an article about theMetropolitan Museum of Art's painting of Saint Rosalia by Van Dyck in the context of theCOVID-19 virus.[16]
For the Genoese aristocracy, then in a final flush of prosperity, he developed a full-length portrait style, drawing onVeronese and Titian as well as Rubens' style from his own period in Genoa, where extremely tall but graceful figures look down on the viewer with great hauteur. In 1627, he went back to Antwerp where he remained for five years, painting more affable portraits which still made his Flemish patrons look as stylish as possible. A life-size group portrait of twenty-four City Councillors ofBrussels he painted for the council-chamber was destroyed in 1695.[17] He was evidently very charming to his patrons, and, like Rubens, well able to mix in aristocratic and court circles, which added to his ability to obtain commissions. By 1630, he was described as the court painter of the Habsburg Governor of Flanders, the Archduchess Isabella. In this period he also produced many religious works, including largealtarpieces, and began his printmaking.
King Charles I was the most passionate collector of art among theStuart kings and saw painting as a way of promoting his elevated view of the monarchy. In 1628, he bought the fabulous collection that theDuke of Mantua was forced to sell, and he had been trying since his accession in 1625 to bring leading foreign painters to England. In 1626, he was able to persuadeOrazio Gentileschi to settle in England, later to be joined by his daughterArtemisia and some of his sons. Rubens was an especial target, who eventually in 1630 came on a diplomatic mission, which included painting, and he later sent Charles more paintings from Antwerp. Rubens was very well-treated during his nine-month visit, during which he wasknighted. Charles's court portraitist,Daniel Mytens, was a somewhat pedestrian Dutchman. Charles was very short, less than 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, and presented challenges to a portrait artist.
Van Dyck remained in touch with the English court and helped King Charles's agents in their search for pictures. He sent some of his own works, including a self-portrait (1623) withEndymion Porter, one of Charles's agents, hisRinaldo andArmida (1629), and a religious picture for QueenHenrietta Maria. He had also painted Charles's sister, QueenElizabeth of Bohemia, atThe Hague in 1632. In April of that year, van Dyck returned to London and was taken under the wing of the court immediately, being knighted in July and at the same time receiving a pension of £200 a year, in the grant of which he was described asprincipalle Paynter in ordinary to their majesties.[18][19]
Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary April–August 1632
He was well paid for his paintings in addition to this, at least in theory, as King Charles did not actually pay over his pension for five years and reduced the price of many paintings. He was provided with a house on theRiver Thames atBlackfriars, then just outside theCity of London, thus avoiding the monopoly of theWorshipful Company of Painter-Stainers. A suite of rooms inEltham Palace, no longer used by the royal family, was also put at his disposal as a country retreat. These residences were managed by his partnerMargaret Lemon.[20]
His Blackfriars studio was frequently visited by the King and Queen (later a special causeway was built to ease their access), who hardly sat for another painter while van Dyck lived.[9][17]
He was an immediate success in England, where he painted large numbers of portraits of the King and Queen, as well as their children. Many portraits were done in several versions, to be sent as diplomatic gifts or given to supporters of the increasingly embattled king. Altogether van Dyck has been estimated to have painted forty portraits of King Charles himself, as well as about thirty of the Queen, nine of theEarl of Strafford, and multiple ones of other courtiers.[21] He painted many of the court, and also himself and his mistress, Margaret Lemon.[20]
In England he developed a version of his style which combined a relaxed elegance and ease with an understated authority in his subjects which was to dominate English portrait-painting to the end of the 18th century. His portraits of Charles on horseback updated the grandeur of Titian'sEquestrian Portrait of Charles V, but even more effective and original is his portrait of Charles dismounted in theLouvre: "Charles is given a totally natural look of instinctive sovereignty, in a deliberately informal setting where he strolls so negligently that he seems at first glance nature's gentleman rather than England's King".[22] Although his portraits have created the classic idea of "Cavalier" style and dress, in fact a majority of his most important patrons in the nobility, such asLord Wharton and the Earls ofBedford,Northumberland andPembroke, took theParliamentarian side in theEnglish Civil War that broke out soon after his death.[17]
The KinginCouncil byletters patent granted van Dyckdenizenship in 1638. On 27 February 1640 he married Mary Ruthven, with whom he had one daughter.[23][24] Mary was the daughter ofPatrick Ruthven, who, although the title was forfeited, styled himselfLord Ruthven.[25] She was alady-in-waiting to the Queen in 1639–40; this may have been instigated by the King in an attempt to keep him in England.[9] He had spent most of 1634 in Antwerp, returning the following year, and in 1640–41, as the Civil War loomed, spent several months in Flanders andFrance. In 1640 he accompanied princeJohn Casimir ofPoland after he was freed from French imprisonment.[26]
A letter dated 13 August 1641, fromLady Roxburghe in England to a correspondent in The Hague, reported that van Dyck was recuperating from a long illness.[27] In November, van Dyck's condition worsened, and he returned to England from Paris, where he had gone to paintCardinal Richelieu.[27] He died in Blackfriars, London on 9 December 1641, the same day as the baptism of his daughter Justiniana.[23] He was buried on 11 December, in the choir ofSt Paul's Cathedral. His mortal remains and tomb (erected by the king) were destroyed in theGreat Fire of London in 1666.[23][28]
In the 17th century, demand for portraits was stronger than for other types of work. Van Dyck tried to persuade Charles to commission large-scale series on the history of theOrder of the Garter for theBanqueting House, Whitehall, for which Rubens had earlier completed the large ceiling paintings (sending them from Antwerp). A sketch for one wall remains, but by 1638 Charles was too short of money to proceed.[9] This was a problem Velázquez did not have, but equally van Dyck's daily life was not encumbered by trivial court duties as faced by Velázquez. In his visits to Paris in his last years, van Dyck attempted to obtain the commission to paint the Grande Gallerie of theLouvre without success.[29]
A list of history paintings produced by van Dyck in England survives. It was compiled by van Dyck's biographer Bellori, based on information fromSir Kenelm Digby. None of these works appear to remain, except theEros and Psyche done for the King (below).[9] But many other works, rather more religious than mythological, do survive, and though they are very fine, they do not reach the heights of Velázquez's history paintings. Earlier ones remain very much within the style of Rubens, although some of his Sicilian works are individualistic.
Van Dyck's portraits flattered more than Velázquez's. WhenSophia of Hanover first met Queen Henrietta Maria (who was in exile in Holland) in 1641, she wrote: "Van Dyck's handsome portraits had given me so fine an idea of the beauty of all English ladies, that I was surprised to find that the Queen, who looked so fine in painting, was a small woman raised up on her chair, with long skinny arms and teeth like defence works projecting from her mouth..."[9]
Some critics have blamed van Dyck for diverting a nascent, tougher English portrait tradition—of painters such asWilliam Dobson,Robert Walker andIsaac Fuller—into what certainly became elegant blandness in the hands of many of van Dyck's successors, likeLely orKneller.[9] The conventional view has always been more favourable: "When Van Dyck came hither he brought Face-Painting to us; ever since which time ... England has excel'd all the World in that great Branch of the Art" (Jonathan Richardson:An Essay on the Theory of Painting, 1715, 41).Thomas Gainsborough is reported to have said on his deathbed "We are all going to heaven, and Van Dyck is of the Company."[17]
The Cheeke Sisters, a late double portrait
A fairly small number oflandscape pen and wash drawings orwatercolours made in England played an important part in introducing the Flemish watercolour landscape tradition to England. Some are studies, which reappear in the background of paintings, but many are signed and dated and were probably regarded as finished works to be given as presents. Several of the most detailed are ofRye, a port for ships to the Continent, suggesting that van Dyck did them casually whilst waiting for wind or tide to improve.[30]
Probably during his period in Antwerp after his return from Italy, van Dyck began hisIconographie, which became a very large series ofprints with half-length portraits of eminent contemporaries. He produced drawings, and for eighteen of the portraits he himselfetched the heads and main outlines of the figure, for anengraver to work up: "Portrait etching had scarcely had an existence before his time, and in his work it suddenly appears at the highest point ever reached in the art".[31]
He left most of theprintmaking to specialists, who engraved after his drawings. His etched plates appear not to have been published until after his death, and early states are very rare.[32] Most of his plates were printed after only his work had been done. Some exist in furtherstates after engraving had been added, sometimes obscuring his etching. He continued to add to the series until at least his departure for England, and presumably addedInigo Jones whilst in London.
The series was a great success, but was his only venture into printmaking; portraiture probably paid better. At his death there were eighty plates by others, of which fifty-two were of artists, as well as his own eighteen. The plates were bought by a publisher; with the plates reworked periodically as they wore out they continued to be printed for centuries, and the series added to, so that it reached over two hundred portraits by the late 18th century. In 1851, the plates were bought by theCalcographie duLouvre.[32]
TheIconographie was highly influential as a commercial model for reproductive printmaking; now forgotten series of portrait prints were enormously popular until the advent ofphotography: "the importance of this series was enormous, and it provided a repertory of images that were plundered by portrait painters throughout Europe over the next couple of centuries".[17] Van Dyck's brilliant etching style, which depended on open lines and dots, was in marked contrast to that of the other great portraitist in prints of the period,Rembrandt, and had little influence until the 19th century, when it had a great influence on artists such asWhistler in the last major phase of portrait etching.[31]Hyatt Mayor wrote:
Etchers have studied Van Dyck ever since, for they can hope to approximate his brilliant directness, whereas nobody can hope to approach the complexity of Rembrandt's portraits.[33]
Van Dyck's success led him to maintain a large workshop in London, which became "virtually a production line for portraits". According to a visitor he usually only made a drawing on paper, which was then enlarged onto canvas by an assistant; he then painted the head himself. He often usedblue paper for these preparatory studies. The costume in which the client wished to be painted was left at the studio and often with the unfinished canvas sent out to artists specialised in rendering such clothing.[17] In his last years these studio collaborations accounted for some decline in the quality of work.[34]
In addition many copies untouched by him, or virtually so, were produced by the workshop, as well as by professional copyists and later painters. The number of paintings ascribed to him had by the 19th century become huge, as with Rembrandt,Titian and others. However, most of his assistants and copyists could not approach the refinement of his manner, so compared to many masters consensus amongart historians on attributions to him is usually relatively easy to reach, and museum labelling is now mostly updated (country house attributions may be more dubious in some cases).[citation needed]
The relatively few names of his assistants that are known are Dutch or Flemish. He probably preferred to use trained Flemish artists, as no equivalent English training existed in this period.[9] Van Dyck's enormous influence on English art does not come from a tradition handed down through his pupils. In fact it is not possible to document a connection to his studio for any English painter of any significance.[9] DutchmanAdriaen Hanneman (1604–1671) returned to his native city,The Hague in 1638 to become the leading portraitist there.[35]
Flemish painterPieter Thijs studied in van Dyck's workshop as one of van Dyck's last pupils. He became a very successful portrait and history painter in his native Antwerp.[36]
Much later, the styles worn by his models provided the names of theVan Dyke beard for the sharply pointed and trimmed goatees popular for men in his day, and thevan Dyke collar, "a wide collar across the shoulders edged copiously with lace".[37] During the reign ofGeorge III, a generic "Cavalier" fancy-dress costume called aVan Dyke was popular. Gainsborough'sThe Blue Boy is wearing such aVan Dyke outfit. In 1774Derby porcelain advertised a figure, after a portrait byJohann Zoffany, of "the King in a Vandyck dress".[38]
A confusing number of different pigments used in painting have been called "Vandyke brown" (mostly in English-language sources). Some predate van Dyck, and it is not clear that he used any of them.[39]Van Dyke brown is an early photographic printing process using such a colour.
When van Dyck wasknighted in 1632, heanglicized his name to Vandyke.[40] The heraldicblazon of hiscoat of arms isQuarters 1 & 4. Azure six roundels 3, 2 and 1 Or and for augmentation on a chief Gules a lion passant gardant Or. 2 & 3. Sable a saltire Or. Over all an inescutcheon Or thereon a bend sinister Azure. The coat of arms is crested with a greyhound's head.[41]
Spanish museums own a rich presence of this artist in addition to the Prado's ensemble. TheThyssen-Bornemisza Museum preservesthe Portrait of Jacques Le Roy,[45] property of The Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection but also on display at the Museum there's aCrucified Christ,[46] and theBilbao Fine Arts Museum houses a greatLamentation before the dead Christ.[47] In 2008,Patrimonio Nacional of Spain recovered aMartyrdom of Saint Sebastian and returned it toEl Escorial, two centuries after its removal and, subsequently, TheReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando has revealed as its own a long-stored painting, added to another,The Virgin with the Child with the repentant sinners,[48] in addition the institution has an original sketch. In addition, in December 2017, aVirgin with Child, which is kept in theCerralbo Museum and was previously considered the work ofMateo Cerezo, was revealed as the painter's original after an exhaustive study and restoration project.[49] Finally, theMuseum of Fine Arts of Valencia owns anEquestrian Portrait of Don Francisco de Moncada (currently undergoing restoration, April 2020).[50]
Tate Britain held the exhibitionVan Dyck & Britain in 2009.[51] In 2016 theFrick Collection in New York had an exhibition "Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture", the first major survey of the artist's work in the United States in over two decades.[52]
^In Dutch, his first name is also attested asAnthonis orAntonie; inFrench, asAntoine; inItalian, asAntonio orAnthonio. In English, a capitalised "Van" in "Van Dyck" was more usual until recent decades (used by Waterhouse for example), and the "Dyke" spelling was often used during his lifetime and later (and is usual forthe beard style). The Dutch "Dyck" is an old-fashioned contraction of the spelling "Dijck", with the"IJ" digraph.[2]
^abJeremy Wood, 'Sir Anthony van Dyck', in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, Oxford, 2004, XVII, pp. 466–475, Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
^Grosvenor Gallery; Stephens, F.G. (1887).Exhibition of the Works of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. H. Good and Son, Printers. p. 14.About the end of March or the beginning of April, 1632, Van Dyck arrived in England; he was almost immediately appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King, knighted, presented with a gold chain, similar to that which had been given to ...
^Stijn Alsteens,Adam Eaker, An Van Camp, Xavier F Salomon, Bert Watteeuw, Anthony Van Dyck and Frick Collection (2016).Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture. New York New Haven: Frick Collection; in association with Yale University Press. p. 247.ISBN9780300212051.
^Cokayne, G. E., et al,The Complete Peerage, vol.iv, London, 1916, p. 385n
^Royalton-Kisch, Martin.The Light of Nature, Landscape Drawings and Watercolours by Van Dyck and his Contemporaries, British Museum Press, 1999,ISBN0-7141-2621-7
^Rudi Ekkart and Quentin Buvelot (eds),Dutch Portraits, The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals, Mauritshuis/National Gallery/Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, p. 138 QB, 2007;ISBN978-1-85709-362-9
^Hans Vlieghe, "Thijs, Pieter." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. 22 August 2019.
^Condra, Jill, ed. (2008).The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through World History. Vol. 2 (1 ed.). United States: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 103.ISBN978-0-313-33664-5.His style coined the names of the van Dyke beard, for the sharply pointed and trimmed goatees popular for men in the first half of the century, and the van Dyke collar, a wide collar across the shoulders edged copiously with lace.
^"Vandyke brown",Pigment Compendium, by Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall, p. 388, 2008, Routledge,ISBN1136373926, 9781136373923,google books
^Massie, Allan (2013).The Royal Stuarts: A History of the Family That Shaped Britain (paperback). St. Martin's Griffin (published 5 February 2013). p. 191.ISBN978-1-250-02492-3.Van Dyck was knighted and anglicised his name to Vandyke.
^Siddons, Michael (2010).The Heraldry of Foreigners in England 1400-1700 (hardcover). Harleian Society (published 1 January 2010). p. 472.ISBN9780954044336.
.jpg)
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
%2c_Koninklijk_Museum_voor_Schone_Kunsten_Antwerpen%2c_404.jpg)
_with_M._de_St_Antoine_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
.jpg)
