Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/628

 598 Painting 2. The first English Artists. Other Foreigners. Nicholas Hilliard (1547 — 1619) has left some good miniatures, as well as life-sized portraits, without taking into account that he was a goldsmith and jeweller. Isaac Oliver (1556 — 1617), the pupil of Hilliard and Zuc- caro, painted miniatures equally well ; his son Peter Oliver (1601 — 1660) and himself often signed " Oliver." Perhaps Hilliard and these Olivers were of French descent. In the reign of James I., there was a new generation of foreign painters : Paul van Somer of Antwerp (1576 — 1621) came to London about 1606 and painted portraits of the Court and the nobility. Cornells Janssens, van Keulen, born at Amsterdam, arrived in 1618, painted many excellent portraits, and re- turned to die at Amsterdam. Daniel Mytens (1590 — aft. 1658) came a little after, without doubt, for the first date which we find on the portraits painted by him in England is 1623. Both Mytens and Janssens became court painters to Charles I., of whom they have left excellent portraits, as well as of the royal family and the English aristocracy. The reign of Charles I. is a bright period in the history of art in England — thanks to foreigners. In 1629, Rubens came and sojourned a year ; and in 1632 Van Dyck took up his abode in London. The designs painted by Rubens for the ceiling at Whitehall, illustrating the History of Achilles, intended for reproduction in tapestry at the manufactory at Mortlake, are preserved in English gal- leries, as well as the portraits, many times repeated, of the Earl of Arundel and of the Duke of Buckingham. It does not appear that Rubens produced any other great works in England beyond the S. George now at Buckingham