ANTHONY VAN DYCK (1599--1641), a native of Antwerp, after a brief and unsatisfactory visit to England, returned here and was created Court Painter in 1632. Charles I. knighted him in 1632. His influence affected the portrait painters who lived a century after him, and survived till the advent of Reynolds. The best of Van Dyck's pictures are in the possession of the Crown and private collectors in England. There is one famous _Portrait of Charles I._ in the Louvre, and another in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The _Three Children of Charles I._ is among his pictures in Windsor Castle. In the National Gallery the best specimen of Van Dyck's art is the _Emperor Theodosius and St. Ambrose_, No. 50. The _Gevartius_, No. 52, is probably by Rubens. There are magnificent portraits by Van Dyck in many private galleries. GERARD VAN HONTHORST (1590--1656), a native of Utrecht, passed some years in England, painting portraits for Charles I. and his courtiers, and giving lessons to his daughter Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Bohemia. WILLIAM DOBSON (1610--1646), a dwarf, was apprenticed to Sir Robert Peake, an obscure painter and picture dealer, and learnt to copy Van Dyck so accurately, that he attracted the notice of the great master, who introduced him to the King. He became, after his patron's death, Serjeant-Painter, and Groom of the Privy Chamber. His career, like himself, was brief. When the Civil War broke out, Dobson was a prisoner for debt, and he died three years before the execution of his royal master. His portraits are often mistaken for those of Van Dyck. At Hampton Court is a fine picture of the painter himself with his wife. The _Beheading of St. John the Baptist_, which resembles a Honthorst, is at Wilton House; and a portrait of _Cleveland_, the poet, is in the Ellesmere collection. Several of Dobson's portraits have been exhibited in the National Portrait Exhibition, and in the collections of works by the "Old Masters" at Burlington House. [Illustration: THE COUNTESS OF DEVONSHIRE. _By_ VAN DYCK. _From the Engraving by P. Lombart._]