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 3) (London: Smith and Son, 1831)

xxviii

LIFE OF VAN DYCK.

that opinion. His health, which had been for some
years impaired, gradually grew worse ; and although
every effort was made that skill could suggest, or a
royal reward procure*, medicine proved of no avail;
his constitution was exhausted; and he breathed
his last at his residence at Blackfriars, on the 9th of
December, 1641, in the forty-second year of his age.
He was buried with suitable ceremony in old St. Paul’s
Church, near the tomb of John of Gaunt.
In his person Van Dyck was low of stature, but well
proportioned and very handsome; modest and obliging
in his manners ; a great encourager of all who excelled
in any art or science ; and generous to the last degree.
His garb was generally very rich, his equipage magnifi-
cent, his retinue numerous, his table splendid, and so
much frequented by persons of the best quality, that his
apartments seemed rather to be the court of a prince
than the residence of a painter.
The high rank which Van Dyck has ever held in the
annals of the arts, and in public estimation, renders it
necessary that something like a critical inquiry should
be made into the works from whence he derives such
pre-eminence.
His historical productions, although few in number
compared with his other works, are amply sufficient to
show that he possessed the genius requisite to have conti-
nued that course with honour, had he made it his exclusive
pursuit; that he did not do so may be imputed to two
* Such was the anxiety of Charles for Van Dyck’s recovery, that
he offered three hundred pounds to his physician if he could pre-
serve the artist’s life.