David Beck

David Beck ( born May 25, 1621 Delft, † December 20, 1656 in The Hague) was a Dutch portrait painter. The later court painter Christina of Sweden is attributed to the Dutch Golden Age.

Life

Beck, son of a Delft teacher, received the name of his famous uncle, a poet who lived in Arnhem. He trained in painting at the first operating in the Netherlands portrait painter Phillip Brown, towards the end of 1640 as a student and assistant of Anthony van Dyck in London. Beck was considered a good drawer, what should have moved the English King Charles I with the statement that Beck could probably draw even ride out the mail. Karl asked Beck, his sons, including the future King Charles II and his brothers Jacob and Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester to teach in the drawing. After the outbreak of the English Civil War, in consequence of his patron Charles was executed, leaving Beck England and then first entered the service of the French king Louis XIII .. Later he was working for the Danish court, Christina of Sweden appointed him in 1647 to their first chamberlain and court painter. On their behalf, he visited the courts of Germany, Denmark, England, France and Italy, where he made portraits of the local princes and other personages for Christina of Sweden. In exchange, he gave the people portrayed one of the portraits of the Queen, which he led with it some. While Christina's stay in Paris in 1656 traveled Beck contrary to their wishes to family visits to Holland, where he settled in The Hague. There, he died suddenly in 1656, it is believed that was poisoning the cause. Few artists were similarly supported by a princely house. His skill in painting is described as extraordinary.