Page:Dictionary of Artists of the English School (1878).djvu/465

 VAN

VAX

gifted with a very rapid power of sketching, and the number of his drawings, often very slight, is incredible ; about 8000 were known tonave been sold by auction between 1778 and 1780. His finished drawings have kept pace in price with his pictures, and at a sale at Amsterdam, in 1833, several very large sums were realised. He died at Tavistock Row, Covent Garden, April 6, 1707, aged 74, and was buried at St. James's Church, Piccadilly.

VANJJEVELDE, Cornelius, marine painter. Was the son of the foregoing, and practised in London at the beginning of the 18th century. He made some good copies of his father's works, but is only remembered as a copyist. • VANDIEST, Adrian, landscape paint- er. He was born at the Hague, in 1655, the son of a marine painter, and was his father's pupil. He came to England at the age of 17, and found employment as a land- scape painter, but occasionally painted por- traits. He was employed for several years by Lord Bath, and drew several views and ruins in the West of England. His works are of unequal merit, as his narrow circum- stances and the necessities of his family compelled him to work for low prices. He decorated the wainscot in old nouses with slight landscapes and mountainous back- grounds. His best works are luminous, well coloured, and finished. Sir Peter Lely possessed seven of his landscapes. He

Eainted his own portrait, the right hand olding a landscape. He died in London, of an attack of gout, in 1704, and was buried at the church of St. Martin-in-the- Fields. There are several sets of landscapes etched by him in a slight but masterly manner. He left a son, who practised as a portraitpainter.

• VANDYCK, Sir Anthony, Knt., por- trait and history painter. Was born at Antwerp, March 22, 1599, the only son of a wealthy merchant in that city. He first studied art under Henry Van Balen, a clever painter, and then, attracted by the works of Rubens, he entered his studio in 1615, became his favourite pupil, and his assist- ant in many of his great pictures, con- tinuing four years with him. By Rubens' advice he visited Italy, and presenting his master with a portrait of his wife Helena Forman and two other of his own works, in return for the present of a horse by Rubens, he set off for Venice in 1621 to study the masterpieces of Titian. From thence he went to Genoa and Rome, where he stayed some time, lived in much luxury, and paint- ed the portraits of several distinguished men, among them, Cardinal Bentivoglio. for whom he also painted some historical subjects ; but he refused to join in the carousals of the artists, who "became the severe critics of his works, and he returned 444

to Genoa, where he was received in the most flattering manner, and found full em- ployment. On an invitation from Palermo he visited that city, and painted the por- traits of the Prince of Savoy, the Viceroy, and some other persons of eminence. Then, on an outbreak of the plague, he left Pa- lermo, and afterwards returned, in 1626, to his native city.

The reputation he had gained in Italy had preceded him, and the citizens of Ant- werp were ready to welcome him. He was employed to paint St. Augustine for the church of the Augustines, and the picture increased his fame. He was overwhelmed with commissions for the public edifices of Antwerp, Brussels, Mechlin, and Ghent. He painted, in grisaille of small size, the portraits of the eminent artists of his time, which have been many times engraved, ana he etched several with his own hand. But his success gave rise to jealousy. His old fellow-pupils depreciated his works ; the canons of the cathedral church of Courtrai, amon^ others, abused the pictures they had commissioned him to paint, and he readily accepted an invitation from Frederick Prince of Orange to visit the Hague, where he painted the portrait of the Prince and the principal personages of his court. He is believed to have been a short time in Eng- land in the spring of 1621. In 1629 he was induced to come here again by the en- couragement given to the arts by Charles I., and lodged with his friend Geldorp, a painter : but, failing to gain the King^s notice, he went away chagrined, and this reaching the ears of the King he sought his return.

In 1632 he was specially invited by the Earl of Arundel, at the command of the King, who showed him the greatest favour and immediately employed him. He was knighted the same year, and soon after appointed painter to his Majesty, with an annuity for life of 2001. The King, his Queen, and their children sat to him re- peatedly, and we are indebted to him for the most complete historic portraiture of his time. He was indefatigable in his labours, and his works will be found in most of the mansions of England's old families. He married Maria Ruthven, daughter of Dr. Ruthven,a physician, and grand-daugh- ter of the unfortunate Earl Gowrie, whose §reat personal beauty was her only dower, oon after his marriage he took his wife on a visit to his family at Antwerp, and thence to Paris. It is supposed that he was anxious to have been employed upon the decoration of the Louvre, but he was disap- pointed, and, returning to England, he pro- posed to paint the history ana procession of the Order of the Garter on the walls of the Banqueting House, Whitehall, of which Rubens had decorated the ceiling. For this