Anthony van Dyck self portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art) American banker Jules Bache in 1949. Anthony van Dyck self portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art) The Metropolitan Museum of Art possesses in its collection a self portrait painted by Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck. Done in oil on canvas, the work depicts its creator during his early twenties. The self portrait was likely painted by van Dyck during the winter of 1620-1621, which the artist spent in London. van Dyck chose to render a depiction of himself as a country gentlemen dressed in fine clothes; he likely acquired these clothes due to his father being a wealthy clothier. The painting
Anthony van Dyck the day, Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work. Van Dyck worked in London for some months in 1621, then returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627, mostly based in Genoa. In the late 1620s he completed his greatly admired "Iconography" series of portrait etchings, mostly of other artists. He spent five years after his return from Italy in Flanders, and from 1630 was court painter for the archduchess Isabella, Habsburg Governor of Flanders. In 1632 he returned to London to be the main court painter, at