Cabinet card photograph signed in full and inscribed

Full-length portrait of the noted Belgian tenor as Loge in Wagner's Das Rheingold. Signature dated 1899. A. Dupont, photographer, 1898. Ca. 142 x 108 mm. With the photographer's information printed to lower left corner.

Very slight loss to corners; some staining; trimmed; verso quite worn. Van Dyck "made his stage début in 1887 at the Eden-Théâtre as Lohengrin. After intensive coaching from Julius Kniese he sang Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1888, returning there in the same role until 1912 and as Lohengrin in 1894. From 1888 to 1900 he was engaged at the Vienna Hofoper, where he appeared in Smareglia's Il vassallo di Szigeth (1889). He first sang Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon at Vienna (1890), and he made his London début in that role at Covent Garden (1891), where he also sang Faust and Lohengrin (1891), Tannhäuser, Siegmund and Mathias in Kienzl's Der Evangelimann (1897), Loge in Das Rheingold (1898) and Tristan (1901). In Vienna he created the title role of Massenet's Werther (1892), and took the part of Marcel in Leoncavallo's La bohème (1898). He made his début at the Paris Opéra as Lohengrin in 1891 and at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, in the same part (1894), becoming a regular visitor to the latter house in Wagner and Massenet roles. He made his American début at Chicago on 9 November 1898 as Tannhäuser, and first appeared at the Metropolitan, New York, 20 days later in the same role. His voice, both powerful and sweet-toned, not only encompassed the heavy Wagnerian tenor roles with ease, but also the more lyrical French repertory, and he was particularly admired as Des Grieux." Elizabeth Forbes in Grove Music Online.