v Foreign Eyes Painters from the Low Countries in Seventeenth-Century England England has from the beginning been a nation of writers but it is only from the early eighteenth century that we can claim to have produced a body of native painters, responsible for providing the lion's share of the nation's pictures. With the exception of miniature painters practising a specialist art and the occasional native of distinction such as William Dobson, John Michael Wright and Francis Barlow, the history of painting in England during the seventeenth century was very largely the creation of foreign artists, particularly from the Netherlands, both north and south, who either came on short visits or for various reasons took up residence here. In the later sixteenth century they were often refugees fleeing from war and religious persecution, whereas a century later economic hardship sometimes prompted their emigration to England. Portraiture, that essential accompaniment to the life of a court, was very largely served by foreigners, primarily by Anthony van Dyck and Daniel Mytens before the Civil War, and by Peter Lely and Godfrey Kneller after the Restoration - with the result that our image of the Stuart kings is very largely their creation. Although portraiture was the predominant activity of painting in seventeenth-century England, there were other categories of subject-matter painted by the visiting artists from the Low Countries and some of what they produced forms the subject of this essay. Although the hostile political situation between England and the Northern Netherlands during the reign of Queen Elizabeth i continued under her successor James 1, largely owing to maritime and mercantile rivalry, this did not prevent the influx of Dutch as well as of Flemish artists, who served to establish flourishing artistic and cultural ties between the countries. James i, although he recognised the political need for painting, took little interest in art, but his consort Anne of Denmark was a keen collector and patron, who, it was reported, preferred pictures to people. Despite the King's lack of interest, his reign witnessed the beginnings of the great tradition of English collectors, of whom the most notable were the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Buckingham. These two noblemen were, for instance, responsible for attracting the young Van Dyck, anxious to establish himself away 190
Through Foreign Eyes. Painters from the Low Countries in Seventeenth-Century England
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