Double portrait of Cornelis and Lucas de Wael

In 1627 van Dyck was a young Fleming making his name in Italy, and in Genoa he lodged with two brothers from home, Lucas and Cornelis de Wael. Both painted, but they made their real living as art dealers, the men who could find you a picture or ship one across borders. This portrait shows van Dyck among friends. He sets the two of them close together, at ease in each other's company, with none of the silk and swagger he lent the Genoese aristocrats who were paying him. They wear plain dark dress, and he paints them as equals he clearly liked. The plate that later carried their faces across Europe was cut by the etcher Wenceslaus Hollar, who worked from this very canvas.