John de Critz (1551/2 – 1642)

• Was a Flemish portrait painter.
• John de Critz's father was Troilus de Critz, a goldsmith from Antwerp, where he was born.
• His Flemish parents brought him as a boy to England.
• He was apprenticed to the artist and poet Lucas de Heere, a Flemish painter from Ghent.
• De Critz had established himself as an independent artist by the late 1590s.

• His sister Magdalena married Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.

• John de Critz was appointed Serjeant Painter to the king in 1603.

• De Critz's duties as the Serjeant Painter entailed making portraits, the restoration of the decorative detail, the painting and guilding of royal coaches and barges.

• In August 1606 de Critz was paid £53-6s-8d for full length portraits of James, Anne of Denmark, and Prince Henry to send to the Archduke of Austria.

• He held the post of Serjeant Painter to the king from 1603, at first jointly with Leonard Fryer and from 1610 jointly with Robert Peake the Elder.

• His son John de Critz the Younger was also a painter in England, so the father is often referred to as John de Critz the Elder.

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