A pupil of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Frans Snyders was admitted as a free master to the Guild of St Luke in 1602. He spent time in Italy before settling permanently in Antwerp in 1609. Business was brisk. New commissions were coming in as houses were being built and painters made use of each other’s skills to keep up. Artists like Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens and Cornelis de Vos all called on Frans Snyders to produce the animal motifs in their paintings. His portrait here retruns the favour by Van Dyck.