pursue this
calling. Rubens was already a great painter when Van Dyck began his
art studies, and the older man gave the younger much helpful advice.
At his friend's suggestion Van Dyck travelled several years in Italy,
where he was inspired by the works of the Italian masters of the
preceding century. Returning at length to his native city, he set up a
studio of his own, and soon became a favorite portrait painter among
the rich and fashionable classes. Not a few of his sitters were
foreign sojourners in the Netherlands, especially the English. The
lady of our illustration is quite plainly of this nationality, though
she is dressed according to the Flemish modes.

It appears that an English merchant named Wake was established in
Antwerp at this time, and it is supposed that this may be his
daughter. There are also reasons for connecting the portrait with one
of a certain English baronet named Sheffield, who was likewise in
Belgium in this period. Miss Anna Wake, we may conclude, had married
into the Sheffield family when this portrait was painted. These names,
however, are mere guesses, and, even if they were verified, would tell
us no more of the lady's story than we can gather from the picture.
Her life was probably not of the eventful kind which passes into
history. The luxuries of her surroundings we may judge from her rich
dress and jewels; the sweetness of her character is written in her
face.

She shows us perhaps more of her inner life than she intends. Her fine
reserve would naturally shrink from any sort of familiarity. Yet as
she stands quietly before the portrait painter, left, as it were, to
the solitude of her own thoughts, her spirit seems to look out of the
candid eyes.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ANNA WAKE
_Royal Gallery, The Hague_]

Her dignity and self-possession make her seem older than the
twenty-two years with which the inscription on the portrait credits
her. But the face is that of one who has just passed from maidenhood
to young womanhood. Life lies before her, and with sweet seriousness
she builds her air castles of the future. Thus far she has been
carefully guarded from the evil of the world, and her heart is as pure
as that of "the lily maid of Astolat." For social triumphs she would
care nothing, though her beauty could not fail to draw an admiring
throng about her. Vanity and coquetry are altogether foreign to her
nature. She is, rather, of a poetic and dreamy temperament. Perhaps i