The interior of a crypt by night with the Temptation of Saint Antony

The artist was trained by his father, Hendrik van Steenwijk I, and close stylistic similarities make it sometimes difficult to distinguish between their works. It is likely that he spent several years in Antwerp, although apparently he was not enrolled in the Guild of St. Luke there; the fact that he collaborated with Frans Francken I, Jan Breughel I and other painters living in Flanders, and that he exerted a strong influence on Peeter Neeffs I, seems to confirm this assumption. By 15 November 1617 van Steenwijk had settled in London, where he painted architectural interiors in the backgrounds of portraits by Anthony van Dyck, Daniel Mijtens I and others. By 1645 van Steenwijk had moved to the northern Netherlands: in that year's edition of Van Dyck's iconography he is mentioned as Pictor Architectonices Hagae Comitis [architectural painter to the Hague Court].