"David Ryckaert (Rijckaert) III was christened on 2nd December 1612 in Antwerp's St. James's Church. His grandfather, David Ryckaert I, is known as ""brouwer en stoffeerder"" and frame maker, but had no artistic significance whatsoever. His father David II, with whom David III very probably learned, was like his brother Marten Ryckaert a landscape painter. 1636/37 David III is accepted as a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. In 1640/41, Erasmus de Bie, Jacob Lafosse and Hans la Croys are listed as his pupils. His oldest sister Catharina married Gonzales Coques in 1643, who had also completed his training as a painter under David II in the 1630s. Since 1645 David III was a member of the Chamber of rhetoric (Dutch: ""Rederijkerskamer"") ""De Violieren"". Two years later he married Jacoba Pallemans (Palmans). Shortly afterwards the family in Antwerp acquired the house ""Het Keizershoofd"" on the corner of Arenbergstraat and Sint-Maartenstraat. In 1652/53 Ryckaert held the office of dean at the Guild of Saint Luke. In 1658 he rented the house ""De Munt"" south of the Cathedral of Our Lady. David III died in Antwerp on 11th November 1661. He had written his will two days earlier. His inventory, drawn up on 15th October 1663, mentions his three children and his widow as heirs.
David Ryckaert III was already a sought-after painter in his lifetime. Among his clients was Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. After his early landscape scenes David III soon changed to genre painting. In the beginning he followed Brouwer's peasant scenes. Between 1640 and 1650, under the influence of Teniers, he turned to moderate themes such as elegant societies and the new subject of alchemist representation. Around 1650 David III also devoted himself to religious and mythological themes."
