Anthony van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) was born in Antwerp, the seventh child of a silk merchant, and began training at ten with Hendrick van Balen. He became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1617 and within a few years was chief assistant to Peter Paul Rubens, who regarded him as his finest pupil. After a first visit to England he spent six years in Italy, mostly in Genoa, where he developed his full-length portrait style for the city's aristocracy, and in Palermo painted the Saint Rosalia series that fixed the saint's image. Back in Antwerp he became court painter to the Archduchess Isabella, and in 1632 he went to London as principal painter to Charles I, who knighted him. His portraits of the king and his court shaped English portraiture for over 150 years, though he also painted altarpieces and biblical and mythological subjects. He died at his home in Blackfriars and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Here: Saint Martin Dividing his Cloak.