VAN DYCK, SIR ANTHONY, a Flemish portrait and historical painter; born in Antwerp, Belgium, March 22, 1599. He was the seventh child of Frans Van Dyck, a silk and woolen manufac turer, and his second wife, Maria Cuy pers, a lady celebrated for her skill in embroidery. In 1609 he entered the studio of Hendrik Van Balen, a capable painter of the place; in his 15th year he began to study under Rubens, and in 1618 he was admitted a master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke. He soon came to be recognized as the most prom ising of the pupils of Rubens. In the contract, dated 1620, for the decoration of the Jesuit Church of Antwerp it was stipulated that he was to assist his mas ter in the production of 39 pictures; and the "Christ Bearing the Cross," in the church of the Dominicans, may be re ferred to as a work of this period. In 1620 Van Dyck made a brief visit to England, when he appears to have exe cuted the full-length of James I. at Windsor. In 1623, by the advice of Rubens, he started to study in Italy; and, on his way, he is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful country girl of the little village of Saventhem, near Brussels, and to have delayed there, painting his famous "St. Martin Divid ing His Cloak." still in the parish church, and a "Holy Family," since lost.
Arriving in Venice, he devoted himself to an enthusiastic study of the master pieces of Titian, Giorgione and Vero-. nese; and, passing to Genoa, he executed there a series of noble portraits, strongly impressed with the influence of Italian art, many of which are still preserved in the palaces of the families for whom they were painted. In Rome he resided for nearly two years, producing a "Cru cifixion" for Cardinal Bentivoglio, and for the Pope an "Ascension" and an "Adoration of the Magi." After visit ing Turin and Sicily, he again worked in Genoa, and by 1628 he had returned to his native city, where he painted his great "Ecstasy of St. Augustine" for the chapel of the Augustine monastery, vari ous subjects for the Celibataires, and the splendid "Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves" for the church of the Recollets at Mechlin, new in the cathedral there. It was about this period that he executed the fine series of grisaille portraits of eminent contemporaries which were pub lished as engravings by Martin Vanden Enden, and with additions in 1641 by Giles Hendrix of Antwerp. In some 20 of these plates the painter himself etched the heads, and in their early states, be fore the line work of the engravers has been added, these prints are greatly valued. The astonishing spirit, vigor,
and expressiveness of the lines by means of which the features are rendered en title Van Dyck to rank as one of the master etchers of the world.
In 1629 the painter again visited Eng land, but he received little encourage ment, and soon returned. We next find him at The Hague, painting the Prince of Orange and his family, Christian, Duke of Brunswick, and Count Ernest of Mansfield; and in the spring of 1632 he again came to London, under the patronage of the Earl of Arundel, and was warmly received by Charles I., who had been impressed by his portrait of Laniere the musician, and had purchased his "Armida and Rinaldo." He was knighted by the king, appointed his prin cipal painter in ordinary, installed at Blackfriars, and assigned a country residence in Eltham Palace; and in 1633 a pension of $1,000 was bestowed on him, which, however, was very irregularly paid. One of his earliest works during his residence in England was the group of the king, queen, and two of their children, at Windsor; and during the next eight years he painted nearly every distinguished person connected with the court. About 1639 he married, through the influence of the king, Maria Ruth-. yen, granddaughter of the first Earl of Gowrie. Leading a careless life and lavish in his pleasure, Van Dyck suffered from pecuniary straits; and frequently he found difficulty in obtaining payment for the royal commissions. The greater part of 1634 and 1635 was spent in the Netherlands, when he painted Ferdinand of Austria, brother of Philip IV., now at Madrid, and many other portraits, and such religious subjects as "The Adora tion of the Shepherds," in the church at Termonde, and "The Deposition," now in the Antwerp Museum; and at this time he was elected honorary president of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke. In 1640 he visited his native city for the last time and then passed to Paris, hoping to be employed by Louis XIII. on the decora tion of the Louvre; but here again he was unsuccessful, though he received other commissions. On his return to England he found that political troubles were distracting the country. His own health was now permanently broken, and he died in his house at Blackfriars, Dec. 9, 1641, and was buried in Old St. Paul's.