Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/113

 exhibited in the house of a picture-dealer at Antwerp, and attracted much notice, especially from painters, including the great and, at the time, omnipotent Rubens. Two of the set are now in the Dresden Gallery with two of the copies, and others can be traced in the galleries at Schleissheim and elsewhere. It does not appear that Van Dyck ever was actually a pupil of Rubens, although it would be impossible for a young painter at that date, especially for one working in Van Balen's studio, to avoid being educated in the all-prevailing methods and style of Rubens, who had swept away all the pre-existing canons of art. Two portraits in the Dresden Gallery, dated 1618, by Van Dyck, have often been ascribed to Rubens. Another in the Brussels Gallery, dated 1619, still bears the latter's name. In February of that year Van Dyck was admitted to the freedom of the guild of St. Luke at Antwerp, an unusual honour for so young an artist. His earliest historical work seems to have been a ‘Christ bearing the Cross,’ one of a long series of pictures illustrating the ‘Passion’ in the Dominican (now St. Paul's) church at Antwerp. He painted some early portraits of himself, in which he appears beardless, with wavy chestnut hair falling about his forehead, and delicate rather feminine features. One of these is in the National Gallery. A portrait of a boy by Van Dyck in the academy at Vienna perhaps represents him at a still earlier age. In 1619 Van Dyck was working in close relations with Rubens, who practically monopolised the whole patronage of art in the Netherlands at that date. The precision of his drawing is shown by his being specially employed by Rubens to make the drawings from Rubens's paintings for reproduction by the engravers, who were then working under Rubens's direction. A series of six cartoons by Rubens for tapestry, representing the history of the consul, Decius Mus, was carried out in oils by Van Dyck, and is now in the Liechtenstein collection at Vienna. Early in 1620, when Rubens received a commission for thirty large paintings from the Jesuit order in Antwerp, it was stipulated that a large part of the preliminary work, usually done by Rubens's assistants, should be entrusted to Van Dyck, and one picture is wholly his work. A well-attested anecdote narrates that on one occasion, during the absence of Rubens, his pupils got access to his studio, when a painting, on which Rubens was then engaged, was accidentally damaged. In dismay, they could not think of any one among them, except Van Dyck, who could venture to repair the damage. This he did, but did not deceive Rubens, who, however, thought so highly of Van Dyck's work that he allowed it to remain. From his earliest days his work shows a breadth and certainty, which he maintained throughout. That Van Dyck's reputation already stood very high is shown by a letter in July 1620 from a correspondent in Antwerp to the art-collector, Thomas Howard, second earl of Arundel [q. v.], in which it is said that Van Dyck is always with Rubens, and that, as he was the son of wealthy parents, it would be difficult to persuade him to leave Antwerp. By November, however, in the same year, Van Dyck appears to have yielded to the persuasion of the earl or perhaps the Countess of Arundel, for Sir Tobie Matthew [q. v.] writes to Sir Dudley Carleton [q. v.] that Van Dyck had gone into England, and that the king had given him a pension of 100l. per annum. On 26 Feb. 1620–1 payment of 100l. was made to Van Dyck for special service performed for his majesty. It is uncertain what this service was. James I seems to have cared little for any form of art but portraiture, and it was probably for portraits of the king and queen (then lately dead) and their children, including perhaps the deceased Prince Henry, that Van Dyck's services were required. A full-length portrait of James I, now in St. George's Hall at Windsor Castle, has always been ascribed to Van Dyck, and has the appearance of having been executed by him. It does not, however, seem to have been taken from life, and from a note by George Vertue [q. v.] in one of his diaries it would appear that it was an enlarged copy from a limning. Two days after the date of this order for payment Van Dyck received, as his majesty's servant, a pass to travel for eight months, the permission being due apparently to his friend and patron, the Earl of Arundel. Van Dyck painted Arundel more than once, and it seems probable that one of these portraits at least (engraved by W. Hollar) was painted during this visit to England. That Van Dyck's absence from England and the royal service was intended to be temporary would appear from the wording of this pass. It does not seem likely, however, that he returned. The journey to be made was probably that to Italy, the goal of all northern artists, with the wonders of which Arundel was well acquainted, and where Rubens himself had spent much time with great profit at Genoa, Mantua, Rome, and elsewhere. Rubens, who seems always to have taken the most kindly interest in Van Dyck's welfare, no doubt urged on him the importance of