Van Dyck paid a short visit to England in 1620. He went to Italy in the following year, studying the works of the great masters, and especially of Titian, and finally settling in Genoa, where he remained until his return to Antwerp in 1628. During these years he devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture, in which he endeavoured successfully to emulate the golden warmth of colour which had drawn him towards Titian. Unfortunately this, to some the most attractive, phase of Van Dyck’s art is but indifferently shown at the Louvre, the only example being a _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1976). [Illustration: PLATE XXII.—SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640) FLEMISH SCHOOL No. 2113.—PORTRAIT OF HÉLÈNE FOURMENT, THE ARTIST’S SECOND WIFE, AND TWO OF HER CHILDREN (Portrait d’Hélène Fourment, seconde femme de Rubens, et de ses enfants) The artist’s second wife, wearing a felt hat trimmed with feathers, is seated in an arm-chair, and turned three-quarters to the left; on her lap is her little son, François; on the left her daughter, Claire-Jeanne, dressed in brown, plays with her white pinafore. Painted in oil on panel. The picture is unfinished. 5 ft. 8¾ in. × 2 ft. 8½ in. (1·13 × 0·82.)] VAN DYCK’S SECOND ANTWERP PERIOD Some of the master’s most precious works at the Louvre belong to his second Antwerp period, which extended from his return from Genoa in 1628 to his departure for England in 1632. It was probably then that he painted _The Virgin and Child, with the Penitent Sinners_ (No. 1961) (Mary Magdalen, David, and the Prodigal Son), in which the influence of the Venetian colourists is so clearly to be noticed. Indeed, the bosom of the female penitent is copied from the nymph in Titian’s _Education of Cupid_ at the Borghese Gallery, of which there is a drawing in the Chatsworth Sketch-book with the comment in the artist’s handwriting, “_quel admirabil petto_.” Shortly after his return from Italy he also painted _The Virgin and Child with Donors_ (No. 1962), one of his greatest masterpieces. The Madonna is of a youthful, pure type, vastly different from the buxom Flemish women so often depicted by his master in saintly characters. The painting of the Infant’s body is as admirable as that of the kneeling Donors, and a spiritual connection is established by the action of the Child and the expression of the man towards whom He is holding out His hand.