Flemish painter, descendant of a dynasty of Antwerp painters: he was the son of David Ryckaert the Elder and uncle of the prolific genre painter David Ryckaert the Younger. He received his initial training from his father and later from the landscape painter Tobias Verhaeght, who was also responsible for the training of the landscape painter Joos de Momper. Although it has often been asserted that Ryckaert travelled to Italy around 1605-10, no such trip is documented. The assumption that he journeyed south would appear to come from his emulation of the works of Paul Bril, who himself had worked in Italy throughout his long and prolific life. Ryckaert made numerous paintings after Bril's designs from after circa 1615. These works by Bril were imported from Rome to Antwerp where they were much in demand and there was apparently also a strong market for Ryckaert's variations after Bril. Ryckaert was registered in the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke in 1611 as the "painter with one arm". He was, despite his handicap, a highly prolific artist who gained a great reputation for his landscapes with ruins, mountains, waterfalls and pleasant valleys. He remained a bachelor and collected many paintings by his contemporaries in his house in the Meyerstraat in Antwerp. His portrait by Anthony van Dyck, showing Ryckaert dressed up as a king, is today in the Prado in Madrid; it was executed around 1630. In spring 1631 Ryckaert fell ill and he died a few months later in Antwerp on 28 October. He left his entire fortune to his sister Maria and his brother Pauwel. //