(c.1551/1552 - 1642)
John de Critz was born in Antwerp. He was brought to England in 1568 and apprenticed to Lucas de Heere, a Flemish painter who worked in England from about 1567 to 1576. From 1582 to 1588 he was employed by Sir Francis Walsingham and sent abroad as a courier, especially to Paris. By 1598 he was one of the leading portrait painters in London. He held the office of Serjeant-Painter jointly with Leonard Fryer from 1605 and with Robert Peake from 1607 to 1619. He had three sons, all of whom became painters.
