Portrait of Gaspar de Crayer
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna
Gaspar de Crayer was one of the leading painters working in the southern Netherlands alongside Rubens and Van Dyck, an altarpiece specialist whose reputation, while solid, never matched Rubens's prices or invention[1]. A portrait of a fellow artist by Van Dyck sits within a practice he pursued throughout his career: recording the painters, scholars, collectors and statesmen of his generation, most systematically through his print series known as the Iconography, a project of engraved portraits of distinguished contemporaries that he began compiling around 1631 and that eventually ran to roughly a hundred sitters[2]. Van Dyck depicted himself on the title page of that project in the guise of a Roman imperial bust, a sign of how seriously he treated portraiture of his peers as a form of collective record. A picture of de Crayer, painter to painter, belongs to that same impulse: one artist recording another as a durable act of professional memory rather than commissioned flattery.
Where it is held
Held at Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, Austria.
The Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, holds this portrait.
De Crayer among his contemporaries
De Crayer built a reputable career on altarpieces for churches across the southern Netherlands, earning rates that, while above the general going rate of the period, remained well below Rubens's[1]. He worked in the same artistic world as Van Dyck and Rubens, competing for the same category of ecclesiastical commissions without ever displacing Rubens's dominance of invention and reputation. A portrait of de Crayer by Van Dyck records one working painter's assessment of another, made within a small, closely networked professional circle in which reputations, prices and patrons were common knowledge.
The Iconography project
From around 1631, Van Dyck began assembling material for an illustrated compendium of distinguished contemporaries, engraved from his own drawings and paintings, covering military figures, statesmen, philosophers, collectors and fellow artists[2]. He portrayed himself on the title page in the format of a Roman imperial bust, framing the whole undertaking as a serious act of commemoration rather than a casual sideline. Painted portraits of other painters, made by Van Dyck outside formal court commissions, fit naturally within this wider project of recording the notable figures of his age for posterity.
Common questions
Who was Gaspar de Crayer?
A painter working in the southern Netherlands in the same period as Rubens and Van Dyck, known chiefly for church altarpieces, with a solid but lesser reputation and lower prices than Rubens[1].
Did Van Dyck often paint other artists?
Yes. From around 1631 he compiled an engraved series of portraits of distinguished contemporaries, known as the Iconography, which included fellow painters alongside statesmen and scholars[2].
Was this portrait connected to the Iconography series?
Whether this specific painted portrait was a source for one of the Iconography engravings is not documented.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following references, verified against the museum and public-domain image record for this work.
- [1] book Tummers, Anna(Editor), Art Market and Connoisseurship : A Closer Look at Paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Their Contemporaries Used for: this artwork.
- [2] book Lilian H. Zirpolo, Historical Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture Used for: this artwork.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-09-03. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
Editorial standardsMethodologyCorrectionsAI disclosureAbout the editorial team