Vandyke, Anthony

van-dik, Anthony (1599-1641), an eminent portrait painter of Antwerp. His father was a silk merchant. His mother was of an artistic turn of mind, skilled in embroidering landscapes. Vandyke studied with Rubens. After his reputation had been established (1541) he received an invitation to London and was made painter to the king at a salary of $1,000 a year. Some seventy portraits of the English nobility are in evidence. "A Vandyke waist," "a Vandyke collar," "a Vandyke beard," etc., are such as are worn in Vandyke portraits. Vandyke was a rapid worker,--so rapid that a tradition has come down to the effect that he would give a nobleman a sitting in the morning, entertain him sumptuously at dinner, and finish the portrait in the afternoon. On the whole, he was a dashing, extravagant, dissipated genius. His friends guarded him from fashionable forms of vice as much as possible, but he died at forty-three. He was buried in St. Paul's.