Rapidly rising to honour and wealth, Van Dyck shared with Rubens the official title of court painter, and he painted numerous portraits of the infanta in her monastic garb (Paris, Vienna, Turin, Parma, etc.). When Marie de Medici fled from France to Brussels (1631), she several times commissioned Van Dyck to paint her likeness, as well as those of Gaston of Orleans and his wife Margaret of Lorraine, and several of the personages of their court. From Gerbier's letters we learn that Van Dyck at this time was contemplating a journey to England, and desired commissions from the infanta and the queen of France to take over their portraits as presents for the king and royal family. He soon travelled to The Hague to paint the prince and princess of Orange and their son. Early in 1632 Constantine Huygens, who was then living at The Hague, inscribes in his diary, "pingor a Van Dyckio." When, in March, Van Dyck sailed for England, he took these portraits with him.
Settles in London.—Gerbier's letters show that the king had personally desired his presence in London. As early as March 1629 Endymion Porter had been commissioned to order a picture from Van Dyck, "Rinaldo and Armida." The canvas, now belong ing to the duke of Newcastle, is one of the master's finest creations. Besides the title of painter in ordinary, and an annual pension of £200, he received a knighthood (July 5, 1632). He rapidly achieved popularity, and, as Walpole says, his works are so frequent in England that to most Englishmen it is difficult to avoid thinking of him as their countryman.
Few artists, whether in England or elsewhere, have more richly endowed their models with distinction of feature and elegance in bearing. Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, although pictured by several other painters, are known to posterity almost exclusively through Van Dyck, because of a particular power of expression and bearing which, once seen, it is impossible to forget. The artist was given a summer residence at Eltham Palace, and was fre quently visited by the king at his studio at Blackfriars. Portraits now followed each other with great rapidity. His mode of living and his love of pleasure sufficiently explain his great need of money. During his first year in England he painted the king and queen a dozen times. The first of these noble portraits is the admirable full-length of Charles I., with the queen and their two eldest children, at Windsor Castle. The style he adopted in England is generally termed his third manner ; we might better say his •fourth, as he already had a very particular style before he set out on his Italian journey. De Piles gives us some account
of Van Dyck's methods at this period of his career. He began with a small sketch on grey paper with black and white chalks, or a monochrome in oils. This study was passed on to assistants in order to be copied on the required scale. When the clothes were sufficiently advanced by the pupils from those sent by the model, as well as the background and accessories, the master was enabled in a few sittings of an hour each to complete the work. Van Dyck excelled in painting the hands ; he is said to have kept special models for this part of his work. It need hardly be said that a system of this kind, although employed by Rubens for his larger creations, was exceedingly ill adapted to portrait painting. In Van Dyck's later productions we too often detect marks of haste, as if the brush were becoming a mere implement of trade.
Visit to the Netherlands.—Nearly the whole of 1634 and 1635 were spent by Van Dyck in the Netherlands, whence his brother, an Antwerp priest, had been called over by the queen to act as her chaplain. The archduchess died Dec. 1, 1633, and Van Dyck wished to get his official title renewed by her suc cessor, Ferdinand of Austria, brother of Philip IV. On the arrival of the new governor Van Dyck was immediately called upon to paint his likeness (Madrid gallery). Another portrait of Ferdinand on horseback belongs to Mr. Mainwaring, Oteley Park, Shropshire. The most important of Van Dyck's works, at any rate as a portrait painter, belong to this period. The picture representing in life-size the members of the Brussels corporation, which was destroyed by fire during the siege of 1695, is spoken of with intense admiration by several writers. Bullart, for in stance, is very enthusiastic about its fine colour and life-like qualities. Among the religious paintings of undisputed excellence belonging to the same period are the "Adoration of the Shepherds" in the church at Termonde, and the "Deposition," where the body of Christ rests upon the lap of the Virgin, in the Antwerp museum. Among the portraits are the admirable full-length of Scaglia, the king's frequent agent in the Netherlands (formerly at Dorchester House), the equestrian portrait of Albert of Arenberg (Holkham Hall), and a portrait of the same nobleman on foot, in the black velvet Spanish dress with golden chamberlain's key (Althorp), an admirable half-length of a lady in black (Vienna gallery), and above all the grandiose picture in which John of Nassau is represented at full-length, with his wife and children.