Van Dyck |
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Paris art Studies Autumn 2008
Anthony Van Dyck 1599 -1641
1599 – Born in
Antwerp Seventh child of François successful cloth and silk merchant. Two of
his sisters become nuns and his brother a priest. Confident, proud youth very conscious of his precocious talent and technical facility which dazzled contemporaries. Painting at time one of great industries of city exported to other parts of Netherlands and Europe. (panel makers, suppliers of paints and brushes, frame makers and canvas weavers).
1607 – Death of mother.
1608 – Rubens returns to Antwerp after spending 8 years in Italy, his style
will have immense impact on young painter.
Counter reformation art encouraged by Archdukes. Return of worship of
Virgin and Saints.
1609 – Enters studio of Hendrick van
Balen who lived next to Jan Brueghel the elder.
Year of 12 year truce that brings 40 years of
hostilities bet. Spain and north Netherlands to an end.
1615 – Van Dyck sets up his own studio possibly as answer to failing
business of his father.
1618 – Joins guild of Saint Luke as master and also works as assistant in Rubens studio: the master
calls him “the best of my pupils” and he enjoys a superior status to other
assistants. Early success as religious painter in Rubens mode.
1640 – Cardinal Infante ruler of Netherlands asks Van Dyck to complete
unfinished Rubens commission for Philip IV of Spain – refuses will only paint
original picture from scratch.
1620 – First visit to London invited by Italian secretary to Earl of
Arundel. Works for King James I. In royal collections and those of Arundel and
Buckingham encounters for the first time the works of Titian – a revelation.
Absorbs the masters way of modelling in tone, rendering flesh and fabric, the
subtle play of shadow and light. Undergoes a profound self-identification with
Titian, possibly a way to differentiate himself from overwhelming presence of
Rubens in Antwerp.
1621 – Returns to Antwerp and 8 months later leaves for Italy. Arrives in Genoa in November. Storong commercial ties between Genoa and Antwerp. Stays in house of
Flemish painter de Wael.
1622 – Visit to Rome. Indifferent to antique unlike Rubens and has little
interest in literature of ancient world, only rudimentary Latin. Primarily a visual intelligence – his Italian
sketchbooks full of copies of Titian (200 pages altogether!).
1624 – Visits Sicily probably at invitation of viceroy Emanuele Filiberto of
Savoy. Returns to Genoa same year. In Genoa paints famous series of
aristocratic portraits of local nobility: modelled on Rubens’ earlier portraits
of same class. Brings to portraits his
special gift of depicting lace, satin and velvet and remote and elegant manner
infinitely superior to reality of his sitters.
1627 – Return to Antwerp at the time of his sister’s Cornelia’s death. Joins
confraternity of Bachelors. Now has well established Italian reputation and is
appointed to court of Archduchess Isabella. Very busy but finds time to travel
to enemy territory – the united Provinces to paint portraits of including
prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange in the
Hague.
Forms his own art collection.
1632 – Moves to London. Charles I, a great admirer of Titian, recognised Van
Dyck as Titian’s heir in a conscious echo of Charles V’s patronage of the great
Venetian. Van Dyck appointed principal
painter in ordinary of their majesties and knighted.
1633 – Presented with golden chain and medallion by the King. And annual
salary of £ 200 in addition to payments for royal portraits. Given studio on the Thames at Blackfriars
(beyond city of London’s artists’ guild
jurisdiction), special jetty for King to land on is built.
Little is known about his mistress Margaret Lemon,
declared a “dangerous woman and a demon of jealousy” by a colleague.
1634-35 – Trip back to Netherlands, works in Antwerp and Brussels.
1639 – Marries Mary Ruthven, a Catholic lady-in-waiting to the Queen
Henrietta Maria.
His English remains shaky, speaks to Queen in French
or Italian.
1640 – Becomes frustrated with lack of opportunities in London. As political
situation deteriorates starts thinking about returning to Antwerp. Rubens dies
and he is invited back to Antwerp to supervise the Rubens workshop.
1641 – Instead leaves for Paris hoping to work for Louis XIII (royal
commissions in the end given to Poussin and Vouet) but returns quickly to
London. His health is poor. A daughter Juliana, is born and 3 days later Van
Dyck suddenly dies at the age of 42.
“For all the riches he had acquired, Anthony Van Dyck
left little property having spent everything on living magnificently, more like
a prince than a painter.”
Paintings and drawings:
Portrait
of Man from Vincque family c. 1618
Rubens
- Artist with Isabella Brandt c. 1609
Rubens
– Family of Jan Brueghel the Elder 1612-213
Thomas
Howard, count of Arundel c. 1620-21
Self
Portrait (Hermitage) c. 1622-23
Desiderio
Segnio ? 1624
Porzia
Imperiale with daughter Maria Francesca c. 1625
Marchhesa
Elena Grimaldi 1623
Rubens – Marquesa Brigida Spinola-Doria 1606
Jeweller
Pucci with Son c. 1625
Lucas
and Cornelis de Wael c. 1625
Anna
Wake 1628
Princess Marie de Bregançon
Maria de Tassis c.1630
Jacques Le Roy c.
1631
Philippe le Roy,
Seigneur de Ravel 1632 Abbot Cesar Alesandro Scaglia with
Madonna and Child c. 1634-35
Self
Portrait with Sunflower 1632-33
Filippo Francesco d’Este 1631-32
Evrard Jabach c. 1636-37
John
Belasyse (later Lord of Worlaby) c. 1634
Venetia, Lady Digby, on
her Deathbed 1633
Venetia,
Lady Digby, as Prudence 1633-34
Mrs
Olivia Porter c. 1637
Endymion Porter with the
Artist c.1635
Charles I in costume of
the order of the Garter c. 1637 Triple Portrait of Charles I 1635
The Five Children of
Charles I 1637 (Charles, James, Mary, Elisabeth, Anne)
Profile of Queen
Henrietta Maria 1632-38
Queen Henrietta Maria
with Jeffrey Hudson and Ape 1633
Prince Charles Louis
Elector Palatine and Price Rupert his brother 1637
Lord John Stuart and his
Brother Lord Bernard Stuart c.1638
Sir William
Killigrew 1638
Mary Lady Killigrew
1638
Mary Killigrew with an Unidentified Lady c. 1638 Erycius Puteanus c. 1630-31
Rubens – Justus Lipsius
and his students c. 1611-14
Orazio
Gentileschi c. 1632
Adam van Noort c. 1630-31
Pieter
Brueghel the Younger c. 1630
Lucas
Vosterman the Elder c. 1630-31
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