Original works of art

Several of Rubens’s students and collaborators were important to the development of dog painting, but of all of his students, Anthony van Dyck undoubtedly had the most impact on English art, carrying on to an extent the High Baroque glory of his master and the colorist traditions that were to become so important to 19th century artists such as Edwin Landseer.

It is uncertain how Van Dyck became a pupil of Rubens, but he did so at some time after 1610. He figured strongly in the studio, substantially completing several compositions which Rubens went over later. Van Dyck was to become the leading Flemish artist after Rubens, in the first half of the seventeenth century. He was a brilliant portrait painter, working throughout Europe, in Genoa, London, Palermo and Rome.

By 1620 Van Dyck was in London and on October 25, King James I granted him an annual pension of 100 pounds. He was back in London in 1632, whereupon his stature was such that he was knighted and made “Principalle Paynter in ordinary to their majesties.” He was kept very busy with portraiture and the restoration of some of Titian’s painting, which Charles I had purchased from Mantua. Ten commissions from the King were paid for on August 8, 1632, and nine portraits of the King and Queen were paid for. There can be little doubt of the influence of Van Dyck on British portraiture and painting in general.