Hendrik van Steenwijck the Younger

Hendrik van Steenwijck the Younger studied in Frankfurt with his father, Hendrick van Steenwijck the Elder (circa 1550-1603), whose workshop he took over upon the Elder's death. He established himself in Antwerp, where he specialised in the same perspectival paintings of architectural interiors that were popularised by his father.

In 1617, Van Steenwijck moved to London and by 1625 his work was so successful that he was established in the court of King Charles I, where he became acquainted with Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) and possibly painted backgrounds for some of his works. At the end of his life he settled in The Hague, where he also enjoyed great success as a court painter.

Van Steenwijck painted several other versions of this subject, narrated in Acts XII, which provided him with the opportunity to depict an imaginary architectural setting in which to place the religious narrative. A drawing of a remarkably similar interior is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles,¹ and this painting is most similar to Van Steenwijck's other iterations of the subject at Chatsworth, Derbyshire (inv. 640).²

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¹ https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/112/hendrick-van-steenwijck-the-younger-the-crypt-of-a-church-with-two-men-sleeping-flemish-possibly-1625/

² See Howarth 2009, pp. 210-11, cat. no. II. C8, reproduced p. 484.