Born at Antwerp in 1599, Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), after having
worked a few years under Hendrick van Balen, entered Rubens’s
studio in 1615, and soon became so conversant with the method of
his famous master, that he was at an early age entrusted with the
execution of important designs. Before he had reached his twentieth
year he was a member of the Guild of St. Luke, and had acquired a
reputation second only to that of Rubens himself. The _Portraits of
Jean Grusset Richardot, President of the Netherlands Council, and
his Son_ (No. 1985), which was bought in 1784 for 16,001 _livres_,
so closely resembles the work of Rubens, especially in the brilliant
flesh-painting, that the picture—a posthumous portrait, by the way—for
a long time passed under the elder master’s name, although it is now
admitted by the best authorities to be an early picture by Van Dyck.
Van Dyck paid a short visit to England in 1620. He went to Italy in the
following year, studying the works of the great masters, and especially
of Titian, and finally settling in Genoa, where he remained until his
return to Antwerp in 1628. During these years he devoted himself almost
exclusively to portraiture, in which he endeavoured successfully to
emulate the golden warmth of colour which had drawn him towards Titian.
Unfortunately this, to some the most attractive, phase of Van Dyck’s
art is but indifferently shown at the Louvre, the only example being a
_Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1976).
[Illustration:
PLATE XXII.—SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS
(1577-1640)