Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Frans Snyders, ca. 1627–35
Etching (first state)
9 5/8 × 6 1/8 in. (24.4 × 15.6 cm)
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; Gift of Walter C. Klein, Class of 1939
As in his own self-portrait, Van Dyck etched only the head of the still-life painter Frans Snyders in this print, basing it on the portrait in The Frick Collection. It may be the only plate in Van Dyck’s Iconographie series for which it can be shown that the painting preceded the print by several years. More than the print’s final version, finished with the burin by the engraver Jacob Neefs, the etched state brings out the aloof distinction with which Van Dyck depicted his colleague.