portrait painter
Sitting for a formal portrait is a tradition that dates back to the beginning of recorded art forms. In prosperous and noble families portrait painters were retained
on a regular basis to create permanent images of family members. The portraits were painted during long and tedious sittings or, when the subject was unavailable, from
drawings, quick sketches, busts, and earlier paintings. Details of clothing and draperies were literally traced to achieve accurate representations and subjects were
carefully measured to ensure a faithful painted resemblance. Wire mesh grids and tracings paper drawings were also used to achieve accurate perspective and
proportions.
Portrait painters were delighted when the camera obscura, an optical device that was a precursor to the development of the camera, was first invented. The “black box”
was originally intended as a painter’s tool to aid in painting subjects in the most accurate manner possible. Its use as a drawing aid may have been familiar to
artists as early as the 15th century. The principle was described by Leonardo de Vinci.
The Dutch masters, notably Johannes Vermeer in the 17th century, were famed for their accuracy of proportion and detail, and there is evidence to support the belief
that Vermeer used the camera obscura. By the 18th century it was well known that other famous painters used the device, the most notable being Canaletto, whose
personal camera obscura can be seen on display in the Correr Museum in Venice. English portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds owned a camera; and various forms of
photography were widely used by both profession and landscape artists up until the invention of chemical photography in the 1830s.
It was not until much later with the development of a commercial process for printing the image viewed through the camera obscura that portrait artists began to
perceive the camera as a threat to their livelihood. Art critics and the art establishment did their utmost to discredit photography as a secondary or inferior art
form.
The technical advances in photography and printing during the 20th century have lifted the craft of photography to new heights of artistic achievement. Sophisticated,
yet easy-to-use, digital cameras make it simple for casual and amateur photographers to take photographs that can compete with professional photographers.
And…to come full circle…professional online photo to canvas art galleries such as Paint Your Life employ digital technology and professional portrait artists to
create genuine oil paintings from photos which are excellent in quality and accuracy and are very reasonable in cost.
Van Dyck was born in Antwerp to a wealthy family. His talent for painting was clear still very young, and his parents apprenticed him to a local artist when he was
just 10 years old. By the time he was 15 Van Dyck was already a highly accomplished independent painter, sharing a studio with his friend Jan Brueghel the Younger. At
the age of 19 he became a master of the Antwerp painters’ guild.
Peter Paul Rubens soon learned of the young Van Dyck’s talent and took him on as his chief assistant. Rubens had a huge influence on Van Dyck, especially in
composition, but because Rubens dominated the small Antwerp art market Van Dyck made his career outside of Flanders. In 1620, he went to England to paint the portrait
of King James I and it was in London that Van Dyck became exposed to works by Titian, whose use of color he adopted.
Van Dyck remained in England for around four months after which he returned to Flanders. But he did not stay for long; the following year he traveled to Italy to study
the Italian masters and spent six years there as a successful portrait painter. He received commissions to paint the portraits of the Genoese nobility and he soon
gained a reputation as a talented painter of aristocratic portraits who represented his sitters with refinement, elegance and dignity. Indeed, his fellow artists
considered him to be more like a member of the aristocracy than an artist. He dressed in silks and feathers and was completely at ease in the company of nobility and
royalty.
In 1627 Van Dyck left Italy and returned to Antwerp, where his ease in mixing with the aristocracy helped gain him more important commissions. He was so successful
that by 1630 he rivaled Rubens in popularity. During this period he began to make etchings and he painted a series of religious paintings.
Van Dyck’s reputation soon spread outside Flanders and King Charles I of England, a great lover of art, invited Van Dyck to England as portrait painter to the royal
court in 1632. The king w
as very short — under five feet tall — but Van Dyck rose to the challenge, portraying him with so much majesty and dignity that the king
immediately gave him a knighthood and a fine house with a studio.
In England, Van Dyck’s style combined the authority of his subjects with the relaxed elegance of his Italian years. Many of his sitters were portrayed against the
backdrop of a landscape to give emphasis to the informal style of portraiture he had developed.
English citizenship was granted to Van Dyck in 1638 and the following year he married Mary, the daughter of a Lord and one of the Queen’s Ladies-in-Waiting. Van Dyck
left England for a short time in 1640-41 as Civil War loomed. He went to Flanders and then to France, but in the summer of 1641 he fell ill in Paris and returned to
his house in London where he died shortly after.
Anthony Van Dyck, who in life had lived more like a prince than a painter, was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. The King was so stricken with grief that he erected a
monument in his memory.
You can find a wide collection of Anthony Van Dyck paint by number patterns at the Segmation web site. These patterns may be viewed, painted, and printed using
SegPlay™PC a fun, computerized paint-by-numbers program for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.