Smith, John: A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters: in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 2) (London: Smith and Son, 1830)

SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS

OF
RUBENS.
——
In recording the names of those able scholars and coadjutors
whose talents and exertions have so much contributed to the
fame of Rubens, it seems but just that the lustre which adorns
his name should shed some of its glories on those who have had
so large a share in the furtherance of his great works, and
whose skill in the executive part of the art approached so near
to his as to be often mistaken for his actual performance.
Among these the following are the most eminent.
Anthony Van Dyck, whose pre-eminent talents, when in
the school of Rubens, not only placed him at the head of his
fellow students, but also acquired for him the honourable title
of the prince of his scholars ; his accomplished skill in the
system of his instructor, accompanied by his own natural
genius, enabled him to imitate to such perfection the style and
manner of his master, that in one instance he is said to have
deceived even his penetration ; it may, therefore, readily be
conceived that, with such an assistant, little more than the
conception or sketch of the master was necessary to the pro-
duction of a work worthy of the name of the principal.
Justus Van Egmont. He was also a scholar of Rubens,
and is recorded to have been one of his most active pupils, in
forwarding many of the large altar-pieces produced at that
period, and also the splendid series of pictures illustrative of
the life of Marie de Medicis. Very little is known of this
painter after he quitted his master; some biographers stating