Portrait of a lady, three-quarter-length, in a pink dress and grey mantle, by a plinth, a green curtain draped to her left

Philip van Dyck became one of the most sought-after painters in The Hague during the second quarter of the eighteenth century. He studied in the studio of Arnold Boonen, which he joined at the age of thirteen in 1696 and remained in Amsterdam until 1708 when he is recorded in Middelburg, and by 1718 had settled in The Hague. In 1725 van Dyck went to Kassel where he became court painter for Landgraf Wilhelm VIII producing numerous portraits of various members of the princely family. At the same time he became an art dealer and was active in the formation of the collections of amongst others Wassenaer, van Dishoek and van Schuylenburgh. For the latter's house in The Hague (now the German Embassy), he painted a ceiling showing the Sacrifice of Iphigenia and several overdoors.