Jan Baptist de Wael

His grandfather was the painter Jan or Jan Baptist de Wael who had been included by Anthony van Dyck in his "Iconography" (Icones Principum Virorum), a collection of portraits of leading personalities in van Dyck's time.

In Genoa, Cornelis' workshop was the centre of the colony of Flemish artists who resided in or passed through the city.

Cornelis assisted them with their local integration, passed on recommendations to clients and formulated competition rules.

When Anthony van Dyck visited Genoa, he had stayed with the brothers and Cornelis was one of his closest collaborators in the city.

[1][3] Here he reportedly moved in the circle of the Bentvueghels, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome.