Philip van Dijk was one of the most favored society painters of the Hague in the second quarter of the 18th century. He was nicknamed "the little van Dijck" after the Flemish 17th century painter Sir Anthony van Dijck. Artists biographer Johan van Gool asserts that van Dijk was born in Amsterdam in 1680. Other sources say that he was born on January 31, 1683 in Oud Bijerland as the son of Adriaan Jacobse van Dijk and Elisabeth Melssen van Wijngaarden.

He became an apprentice at the workshop of Arnold Boonen in 1696. Afterwards he probably worked for Adriaen van der Werff in Rotterdam. There he married Geertruid van Beekhuysen on December 5, 1708. That same year, he became a member of the guild in Middelburg. From 1718 on he lived in the Hague where he established himself as a painter and art dealer.

In 1725, van Dijk was appointed painter to the court of Wilhelm VII of Hessen Kassel, one of the most renowned collectors of 17th century Dutch paintings in Germany.

He returned to Middelburg in 1737 and is registered in 1750 at the Hague, where he became court painter to William IV, Prince of Orange.

Sources include:
www.artlistings.com/
wikipedia.org