Anthony Van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641)
Van Dyck, a lauded painter of European royalty, was also a competent etcher who looked to Peter Paul Rubens as his mentor. His painting style was economical with pigments applied thinly in delicate and mellow combinations of blue, gray, pink, ochre, and sienna. His main endeavor in etching is a series of portraits of some of the best-known thinkers and artists of the time called the Iconographie. No copy directly from Van Dyck is preserved. He is most remembered for his portraits of British aristocracy as court painter to King Charles I. He was loved by the King and buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
