Sir Anthony van Dyck (Dutch pronunciation: [vɑn ˈdɛik], many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading ...
court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealthy Antwerp silk merchant, Anthony painted from an early age. He was successful as an independent painter in his late teens, and became a master in the Antwerp guild in 1618. By this time he was working in the studio of the leading northern painter of the day, Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work.