Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

Born the seventh of twelve children to a wealthy silk merchant in Belgium, Anthony van Dyck began to paint at an early age. By the age of nineteen, he had become a teacher in Antwerp. Soon afterward, he collaborated and trained with the famous Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. He studied and worked in Venice and Paris. Van Dyck was famed as a portrait painter in France and England, creating portraits for Charles I and Louis XIV. Comment on works: Portraits; Religious; History.