Velasquez, knowing little or nothing of the contemporary Dutchmen, worked at the same art problems all his life, and at last mastered the atmosphere problem completely, whether it was the air of a closed room in the dark palace of Philip, or the air of the open country, as in our picture.

In this there is no bright light except upon the face of the little prince.

It is dark and gloomy weather, but if on such a day you were to see the canvas in the open air it would almost seem part of the country itself, as Velasquez's picture of a room seems part of the gallery in which it hangs.
It was only by degrees that he attained this quality in his work.

He had had the ordinary teaching of a painter in Spain, but the level of art there at the time was not so high as in Holland or Italy.

Like Rembrandt he was to a great extent his own master.