FOLLOWER OF SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK | Portrait of Nicolaas Rockox (1560-1640), bust-length, in a white ruff and fur mantle

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner.

A contemporary derivation from the three-quarter-length portrait of 1620-21 by Van Dyck today in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.¹ Rockox was burgomaster of Antwerp nine times and one of the most influential people in the city, and the outstanding art collector and patron of his generation. He was a particular friend of Rubens, from whom he commissioned several important works, both public and private, notably the great Samson and Delilah in the National Gallery, London, as well as the young Van Dyck. Another head and shoulders version of this portrait of Rockox by Van Dyck's pupil Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert is in the Museum Maagdenhuis in Antwerp.²

1 https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.%20paintings/48355/

2 See Bezoekersgids Maagdenhuismuseum, digital publication 2016, p. 26, cat. no. 141, reproduced p. 28: https://www.maagdenhuis.be/sites/default/files/pdf/Catalogus%20Maagdenhuis%20museum.pdf

For more information on the panel maker Ambrosius Engelants, please see: http://jordaensvandyck.org/antwerp-panel-makers-and-their-marks/#engelants