{"id":3082,"date":"2024-06-19T16:13:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T14:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rubens-antwerpen.be\/home\/north\/st-charles-borromeos-church\/antoon-van-dyck-self-portrait\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:05:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:05:38","slug":"antoon-van-dyck-self-portrait","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rubens-antwerpen.be\/en\/home\/north\/st-charles-borromeos-church\/antoon-van-dyck-self-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoon van Dyck: Self-portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Timeline 1627: Self-portrait of Anthony van Dyck<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On his return from Italy, Anthony van Dyck looks back for a moment. We don’t have any correspondence from him, but more than one novelist has filled those gaps, why can\u2019t we do the same? <\/em><\/p>\n

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Anthony van Dyck says in September 1627:<\/em><\/p>\n

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I am so happy to be back in Antwerp after 6 years in Italy! I can walk through the city and look back in time: so much has happened in my life and I still have to turn thirty!<\/p>\n

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On the edge of Market square\/Grote Markt I\u2019m shown the house ‘The Bear Dance\/De Berendans’ where I am supposed to be born on March 22, 1599. A day later I was baptized in the Church of Our Lady. As a newborn I don\u2019t remember that!<\/p>\n

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Around Christmas of the same year, my father Franchois and mother Maria Cuypers, moved to the large house \u2018Saint Paul in the Castle at Lille\u2019<\/em> on the Short New Street\/Korte Nieuwstraat (disappeared now, it was house number 42).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That, I do remember well: my father and mother had a successful trade there. And so they also bought the neighbouring house ‘The City of Ghent’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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My mother ran her own haberdashery shop: linen, knitwear, ribbons, lace, needles, all of it elegant. Did I adopt some gallantry from that? I will not contradicting you.<\/p>\n

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When I turned eleven, I was already an apprentice to master Hendrick van Balen at the Long New Street\/Lange Nieuwstraat (house number 78, disappeared). He allowed me to paint my first self-portrait in 1613.<\/p>\n

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What I’m showing you here is from a few years later, I think, 1615 or 1616. A that time I was already working with Jan Brueghel and Herman Servaes was my first pupil. However, it was not until February 11, 1618, that I became a master in the Guild of St. Luke. I was quite ahead of my time.<\/p>\n

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Was my father so far-sighted as to have me emancipated as adult almost simultaneously, five days later? I think so; it allowed me to defend his interests more than once before the aldermen!<\/p>\n

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Back to my portrait. It was in those years that I could work with the greatest of our painters: you know that I\u2018m talking about Master Pietro Pauolo Rubens. He gave me ideas, allowed me to work out his sketches and praised me as ‘meglior mio discepulo’<\/em>, shortly before we won the project of the Jesuits. Like him, I travelled to Italy, to work there, let\u2019s be clear!<\/p>\n

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Now that Rubens often works directly for our Archdukes, the commissions for paintings end up with all his able assistants.<\/p>\n

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Am I ambitious? Yes, I admit so. Am I as lucky in love? That you can doubt. I have seen and painted the ladies of aristocracy, over there in Italy and here in the Low Countries. I portrayed them with great love and affection; but in the end, we are only middle-class, bourgeois men, children of merchants, suppliers of decoration …<\/p>\n

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If I could look into the future?<\/p>\n

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I’ve been able to put some savings aside. As soon as the city issues another loan, I’ll join the investors.<\/p>\n

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And wouldn\u2019t it be a good idea to return to London? Fashion is evolving over there and gaining in colour; that\u2019s a dream for a creative painter!<\/p>\n

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From here you can continue on the short trail “Centre<\/a>” that takes you to the Cathedral of Our Lady.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timeline 1627: Self-portrait of Anthony van Dyck On his return from Italy, Anthony van Dyck looks back for a moment. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3080,"menu_order":341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3082","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t