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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vandyke, Peter

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707142Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 58 — Vandyke, Peter1899Lionel Henry Cust

VANDYKE, PETER (fl. 1767), painter, born in Holland in 1729, came over to England at the invitation of Sir Joshua Reynolds to assist in painting draperies and similar work for him. He exhibited a few pictures at the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1762 and 1764, and six portraits at the Free Society of Artists in 1767. Subsequently he settled at Bristol and practised as a portrait-painter there. He painted for Joseph Cottle [q. v.], the publisher, portraits of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Southey, which are now in the National Portrait Gallery. The portrait of Coleridge was engraved. The date of his death has not been ascertained. It has been stated, but apparently with little ground, that he was connected by family with Sir Anthony Van Dyck. He was possibly related to Philip Van Dyk, a well-known portrait-painter at Amsterdam, who died in 1752.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists (1760–1892); Cat. of National Portrait Gallery, 1888.]