This street has been rightly named after a teacher of Rubens, who ran his studio in this street. But what about the other teachers, collaborators or apprentices; have they also received such a tribute?

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Thanks to their popularity, Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens had streets named after them; who else got so much honour?

In 1841, Rubens’s most important teacher got his street name here, for the simple reason that he had his studio in this street, in the house called ‘The Prince’ and adjoining (now at number 21). His name? Octavius van Veen, Otto for the friends, Vaenius for the Romanists (the artists who had studied in Rome).

Already in his own time, van Veen had received a lot of praise in the Book of Painters/Schilderboek by Carel van Mander (1604). The author wrote an extensive biography of Van Veen; he emerges from it as an eminent person: son of a mayor, Catholic from Leiden, intellectually trained in literature, apprentice in Italy, court painter in Parma at Alexander Farnese’s; and later working for our archdukes Albert and Isabella.

Could Rubens have had a better teacher? He is more than once indebted to Van Veen for his compositions. In the South route we have already seen ‘The Martyrdom of Andreas’ by Van Veen; in the Cathedral of Our Lady you can see how Rubens imitated and surpassed his teacher with the ‘Raising of the Cross’.

Route East: at the north end of the Otto Veniusstraat, on the Meir boulevard, you will find the statue of Anthony Van Dyck.