Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish Baroque painter whose dynamic mythological scenes, sweeping compositions, rich color, and large oils became celebrated.
Painter
Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque painter celebrated for elegant royal portraits, expressive gestures, and refined oil-painted figures.
Anthony van Dyck quick facts
Anthony van Dyck became a leading European portraitist, working in Antwerp, Italy, and the English court while also making watercolor landscape studies.
| Full name | Anthony van Dyck |
|---|---|
| Born | 1599 · Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) |
| Died | 1641 · London, England |
| Nationality | Flemish |
| Movements | Flemish Baroque |
| Paint types | Oil paint · Watercolor |
| Other media | Drawing · etching |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Wood · Paper (watercolor landscapes) |
| Painting methods | Used fluid oil brushwork and detailed paint handling to model flesh and textiles |
| Common subjects | Charles I, English aristocrats, Flemish nobles, religious narratives, allegorical figures, and royal families |
| Notable works | Equestrian Portrait of Charles I · James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox · Charity · Charles I at the Hunt |
Sources: National Gallery: Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, oil on canvas, National Gallery: Charity, oil on wood, The Met: James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, oil on canvas, and The Met: Van Dyck etching from The Iconography.
Paint types used by Anthony van Dyck
Van Dyck used oil for court portraits and watercolor for landscape drawings; collection records document both media in distinct works on canvas and paper.
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Oil paint
The National Gallery catalogs Equestrian Portrait of Charles I (c. 1637–38) as oil on canvas and Charity as oil on wood. These works show Van Dyck using oil for both a court portrait and an allegorical composition, with different supports. The record for Charles I also documents the large-scale treatment of costume, horse, and landscape.
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Watercolor
Van Dyck used watercolor in landscape drawings as well as oil in finished portraits. The Getty records A Wooded Landscape with a Path to a House as pen and ink with watercolor over black chalk; the British Museum catalogs additional landscape sheets with watercolor washes. These works document watercolor as a drawing medium applied to paper.
Sources: National Gallery: Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, oil on canvas; National Gallery: Charity, oil on wood.; The Met: James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox; Getty: A Wooded Landscape with a Path to a House, watercolor; British Museum: landscape drawing in watercolor
Painting surfaces used by Anthony van Dyck
Van Dyck painted court portraits on canvas and made watercolor landscapes on paper; the examples distinguish finished portraits from works on paper.
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Canvas
The National Gallery identifies Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I as oil on canvas, and the Met records the portrait of James Stuart on the same support. These large-format canvases document his court portrait practice. They differ from the wood panel used for his allegorical painting Charity.
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Wood
Van Dyck also used wood panels, as the National Gallery records for Charity. This support differs from the canvas used for major portraits such as Equestrian Portrait of Charles I. Collection records establish panel painting as a separate part of his practice, rather than a surface inferred from his oil medium.
Sources: National Gallery: Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, oil on canvas, National Gallery: Charity, oil on wood, The Met: James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, oil on canvas.
Painters similar to Anthony van Dyck
Van Dyck developed within Rubens’s Antwerp circle, while Frans Hals brought a looser approach to personality and expression in Dutch portraiture.
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter whose lively portraits, laughing sitters, and energetic brushstrokes captured people with unusual immediacy.