I wanted to chose an artist that had my exact birthday but could not find one, so I chose Anthony van Dyck, who died the same day as my birthday on December 9th.  He was born in March 1599 and lived to be only 42 years old. He was living in the baroque period and did mostly portraits- he did many of King Charles I, which he is know for. He painted, used watercolors, and did etchings. He was very important in the movement of the English portrait painting for his time. He also traveled to London and Italy to paint his portraits and continued to do many of King Charles I. This is a portrait of him called "Self Portrait With a Sunflower." The sunflower is said to represent royalty.