491. "Portrait of the artist Robert Van Voerst"

Etching "Portrait of the Artist Robert Van Voerst" mounted in a frame under glass, 1800.

Original author: Anthonis van Dyck (1599 Antwerp - 1641 London), whose artistic heyday came in the first half of the 17th century, art critics are often called the most talented and beloved student of Rubens. Fame came to him after a series of picturesque ceremonial portraits, thanks to which he was appointed court painter and won the patronage of the English king Charles I. Van Dyck wrote more than nine hundred works. And when he and his teacher decided to try to replicate these works and transferred them to metal, unprecedented popularity came to the master. Anthony van Dijk achieved perfection in the creation of engravings. He created his etchings on sheets of copper. The plate was covered with a special composition, and then a drawing was scratched on it with special tools. This made it possible to obtain prints of excellent quality - the ink applied to the finished etching was retained only in the etched depressions and was transferred to the paper during printing.