Anthony Van Dyck’s marriage might be called one of convenience. He
married Maria Ruthven because King Charles I, of England, wishing him
to settle down, decided on a wife for him. The courtly painter was a
spendthrift. He loved company and entertainment, was handsome, refined,
well dressed, and, all things considered, a thorough gentleman. He
attracted to his society the greatest of English nobility. Gossip had
him in love with so many of the court ladies that the king, fearing his
portrait painter would get into serious difficulties, determined once
for all to save him by a marriage with a Scottish beauty in the queen’s
retinue.
Van Dyck offered no objection. The lady, Maria Ruthven, was young and
very beautiful. Although she brought no dowry except that given by
royal generosity, she was considered a very good match for the artist,
who came of burgher stock. Maria’s family was related to the Stuarts;
but had been for a long time in disgrace. Van Dyck’s only claim to
distinction was his art.
His father, a well-to-do merchant in Antwerp, where Van Dyck was
born in 1599, gave Anthony every opportunity to follow up the art of
painting. The boy was for several years a pupil of Rubens, whom he
made a little jealous by his success in portrait painting. Some of his
pictures were better than Rubens’. A few years in Italy gave Van Dyck a
still higher position among artists. Some said he was the best portrait
painter in Europe.
Yet in spite of his skill Van Dyck was disliked by most painters. They
lounged around the taverns in ragged clothes, put on boorish manners,
and made fun of any kind of refinement. To this behavior he was
entirely opposed. They called him the “Cavalier Painter” because he saw
only the noble side of life, and ignored what was low or common. One
could hardly have been found who was better fitted by nature to live
and paint among the light-hearted courtiers of Charles I. He welcomed
an offer from England, and left Antwerp to make his home thereafter on
foreign soil.
When he married Maria Ruthven, Van Dyck was forty years old. He painted
some portraits of her; but not many, for his death was near at hand. A
journey to Paris, in the hope of receiving important commissions there,
failed in its object, and brought on a severe attack of the disease
from which he had been suffering for years.
The painter returned to England. King Charles offered his physician
three hundred pounds if he could save Van Dyck’s life; but to no
purpose. He died the second year after his marriage, one of the
greatest portrait painters that ever lived. To his wife he left a
considerable fortune, which he had managed to save in spite of an
extravagant life. Maria afterward married Sir Richard Pryse, a Welsh
baronet.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, NO. 28, SERIAL NO. 28
[Illustration: THE BLESSED DAMOSEL. BY ROSSETTI